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CBA Explained: Retained salary transactions

One of the most interesting wrinkles written into the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) are retained salary transactions; or more simply, the ability for teams to retain salary on a player they trade away. This edition of CBA Explained will expand on the topic. Many fans had been clamoring for this rule to be implemented for some time now. Major League Baseball allows you to include cash in a trade, which dramatically helps teams consummate deals involving highly paid players. I would suspect this to be the case in the NHL as well. While a highly-paid, under-performing player is typically unattractive, if something could …

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All Clear: NHLPA ratifies new CBA

We have seen the top of the mountain, and it is good. Earlier on Saturday afternoon, the members of the National Hockey League Players’ Association voted to ratify the new Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHLPA and the National Hockey League. That means the final remaining hurdle to the 2013 season has been overcome. From the NHLPA release: “While the players’ vote ratifies the new CBA with the NHL owners, a written Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) consistent with what the players voted on, must be completed before the Agreement becomes final. The NHLPA and the NHL continue their work to …

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Using Shea Weber as an example why the new contract limitations inhibit Flyers

At the risk of stating the super obvious, all NHL contracts can have salary amounts that vary from one year to the next. However, if you’re reading this, you’re probably a Flyer fan, and you probably rarely think about a player’s salary. To fans of “rich teams” like the Flyers, when it comes to contracts the only number that matters is “cap hit.” A player’s cap hit is determined by taking the average annual value (AAV) of the deal. So ultimately, the salary matters very little when it comes to filling out a roster. The now expired Collective Bargaining Agreement …

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My top remaining questions about the new CBA

As details slowly start to trickle out, and we await the ratification and publishing of the new NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), there will surely be speculation. Some questions you can make safe assumptions about, while others just won’t be known until it is released. With that said, here are my top outstanding questions regarding the new CBA: Is the Wade Redden Rule official? In an earlier proposal, the NHL included what became known as the Wade Redden rule. It prevents NHL teams from burying bad contracts in the minors. If the rule is official, that means the Flyers will …

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Poll: Who should the Flyers exercise their compliance buyouts on?

As part of the tentatively agreed to CBA agreement between the NHL and NHLPA each team has two compliance buyouts they can use over the next two summers. Compliance buyouts would not impact the team’s salary cap. I’ve included the obvious candidates as well as, for the sake of being thorough, the other long-term contracts on the roster. *One thing to note, currently, like in the expired CBA, teams cannot buy out injured players. That could throw a wrench in any plans for the Flyers to buy out Chris Pronger. Feel free to explain your reasoning in the comments!

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NHL and NHLPA reach tentative agreement, so what’s changed in this CBA?

The lockout lasted 113 days, but it is finally over. Early this morning, after missing over 500 games, the NHL and the NHL Player’s Association (NHLPA) reached a tentative agreement on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. So what exactly has changed between the old CBA and the new one? The CBA has a 10 year term and includes a mutual opt-out clause after year eight. The expired CBA had a term of eight years, with an opt-out clause for both sides after seven years. The salary cap ceiling in Year One will be $60 million, however, as expected during this past summer, teams …

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NHL Budges on CBA Terms and Jeopardizes Bryzgalov’s Future

Word broke during the first period of the U.S. – Russia World Junior Championship game that the NHL has made a new proposal to the NHLPA, confirming Tweets made by Eklund last night on the topic I am told by a reliable source the NHL and NHLPA will be meeting Friday. — Hockey Buzz Eklund (@Eklund) December 28, 2012 More info regarding the latest new proposal here>hockeybuzz.com/blog/Eklund/NH… — Hockey Buzz Eklund (@Eklund) December 28, 2012     Pierre LeBrun of ESPN broke the new proposal down in greater detail. The key points are as follows: NHL now proposing 6-year limit on contracts, …

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CBA Chatter

  Everything you wanted to know about the CBA but were afraid to ask Here are your updates from the past week on the ongoing collective bargaining agreement talks from around the Web. It’s like waiting for Christmas, but worse Now, we wait for the players vote about disbanding the union: [Philly.com] [Toronto Sun] And players wait to hear back from the league: [The Hockey News] [CSNPhilly.com] Really, there is nothing to do but wait for either a lawsuit or an agreement. If there is to be a season, it needs to start by January 15th or there will be no season. …

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New sked for New Year? NHL cancels slate through December 30

In a move that should come as no surprise, the National Hockey League decided to blow out 99 percent of December games, this time in a 15-day block between the 15th and 30th, making the announcement on Monday afternoon. Despite the work done by the NHL and NHLPA this past week in New York to close significant gaps in philosophy and how billions of dollars should be divided, a new Collective Bargaining Agreement has not been struck, but is closer than ever to being fashioned. With games only wiped out through December 14th, it was inevitable that a lack of …

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