NHLPA Executive Board approves CBA and Return-to-play plan, players now vote!

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Published 3 years ago
NHLPA Executive Board approves CBA and Return-to-play plan, players now vote!
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The NHL and NHLPA announced a signed memorandum of understanding on Monday to extend the collective bargaining agreement through the 2025-26 season and agree to Phases 3 and 4 of the Return-to-Play plan and finally, the NHLPA’s Executive Board has approved all of it late Tuesday night. 

The NHLPA announced in a late tweet that the full membership vote will be conducted electronically from Wednesday to Friday this week and the result of the vote is expected to be announced shortly after. The NHL’s Board of Governors will also vote on the agreements sometime this week.

This means that the Return to play plan will go according, well, to plans for the NHL to stage a 24-team return later this summer. This agreement covers Phase 3 of the return — training camps beginning July 13 — and Phase 4 — the resumption of play on Aug. 1. Any player that wishes to opt out of returning to play will have 72 hours to do so once the agreement has been approved.

Players, notably New York Rangers star forward Artemi Panarin, made it clear that a new CBA needed to be in place before players should enter training camp. We now know how the league will move forward from a season that could cost it up to $1 billion in lost revenues. The current deal was set to expire in September of 2022 and the extension adds four more years.

A bit blow to teams is the fact that under the new deal, the upper limit of the salary cap will be held flat at $81.5 million and remain there for the upcoming seasons.

The vote will get underway and we should see a puck getting dropped soon enough! 


Source: NHLPA