NHL Rumors: What’s the Latest on the Next Round of CBA Negotiations

NHL and NHLPA Discussing Lots of Topics for the Next CBA

Dave Pagnotta of The Fourth Period was on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio Power Play Segment with Steve Kouleas and Frankie Corrado and was asked about CBA negotiations and if the salary cap will rise before the next deal is agreed to.

NHLRumors.com Transcriptions

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Steve Kouleas: With Dave Pagnotta Sirius XM Insider. So there’s a lot out there as it relates to CBA getting it done, not done. There was one report from a Toronto radio station that talked about 52/48 which I just don’t want to believe.

If you say your partners, I want to get to 50/50, when it was, you know, 47 or 37 whatever the math is, 63 the other way, and the cap for next year, and a kind of an inflator. What’s true, what’s not true? There’s a lot of smoke right now. And like you, I’m coughing too. So what do you got?

Dave Pagnotta: “Yeah, well, they both sides certainly look this. This is a good situation that both sides are in, that the entire league is in, and the NHL and the NHLPA, want to make sure that they get ahead of this. And that’s why things are kind of percolating now and starting to get rolling and whatnot.

Now, with respect to the salary cap, right now, as part of the CBA, it goes up. It can go up maximum of 5% every season, that puts us about $92.4 (million) for next year, you bump it up a little bit, 92.5 once the new CBA kicks in, there’s going to be a big jump in the cap.

NHL Rumors: How Soon Will Next CBA in the NHL Get Done?

You’re going to go from potentially 96-97 to 105 to 110, something in that range, it’s a big, big jump at that point. So they’re trying to see, well, how do we just ease into that type of jump? Do we give ourselves more flexibility now by increasing the cap even further now, so that it’s a more steady pace of an incline versus just a giant leap? And that’s what’s going to be discussed in-depth, between the NHL and the NHLPA, kind of as part of the CBA negotiations.

This is the seventh CBA. We have another 18 months or so before it expires. So there is still time. We still have next season. But is there a way to kind of bridge any type of giant leap, so that we can, a, spread the dollars out and around, and B, do so in an appropriate way. So that’s being discussed, and that will continue to be discussed as things move along.

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Of course, expansion and where those dollars fall, that’s part of the discussion. The NHL argues that, hey, we’re creating new jobs, so there’s your cut kind of thing. So is there a way for them to, the NHLPA that is there a way for them to take some of that expansion money in addition to, obviously, the jobs that are out there?

So that’ll be discussed as well. But everything is still very early in this whole CBA discussion. I do anticipate, though, in the next, say, five to seven months, things will certainly escalate significantly.

And I wouldn’t be surprised if we get to a point in and around the Stanley Cup Final, or at some point next summer, where they sit down and say, boom, we got it done. Here’s the new CBA extension.

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