A players’ strike BEFORE we get to see hockey?!

Fans got excited on Thursday night when the league announced on Twitter  that Phase 2— small group workouts — will begin next week.

However, some folks, reporters and insiders are reminding us not to get too excited. It appears that one crucial detail needs to be ironed out before we can see hockey again, and it is all about the money. 

Pierre McGuire explained on the air of TSN690 that one of the hurdles the NHL has to coming back is the players’ concern about their salary. Some NHL players have still not received their last paycheque and could put pressure to get that money before getting on the ice to take part into the postseason. 

In April, the players had reportedly decided to delay their final paycheques of the season. At the time, the players had chosen to do so in order to extend the time for both parties to figure out how to avoid the dramatic salary cap decline.

It is no secret that the NHL and NHL’s Players Association have been negotiating a new CBA agreement . The escrow payments, in which money is withheld from player’s paycheques, then proportionally distributed to the owners or back to the players after the season to maintain a 50/50 revenue share, have been a central issue.

Here is what Darren Dreger had to say on the situation last night on Insider Trading on TSN:

“Talks are intensifying between the NHL and the NHLPA, what we know is that a ton of work was done on the CBA prior to the pause. NHL clubs want to know what the salary cap is going to be for 2020-21, is it going to be in the low 80’s as many of us have speculated, that needs to be negotiated. The players want to know what the escrow future is, and what is the escrow stability plan, could it be 20 per cent for the foreseeable future, could it be more than 25 per cent, those are the conversations going on right now – the cap, escrow, hockey-related revenue – but they haven’t really gotten yet into what the terms will be in those talks.”