New CBA May Not Be Done As Quickly as NHL Commissioner Wants It To Be
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period was on Sirius XM Power Play Segment with Steve Kouleas and Martin Biron on Wednesday. When asked about CBA Talks and where things stand, he stated it is pretty optimistic to get a new agreement on the timeline the Commissioner wants.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
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Steve Kouleas: We came in and out of some news as it relates to the Board of Governors. Next meeting is in December. Of course, Gary was in Utah . They did talk on the ESPN panel about expansion, and in two years, we’ve talked about this CBA expiring. So, is there anything that’s concerning in your mind? Maybe players wanting expansion monies, or some of that moving forward. Could it get done as early as this June, way ahead of the deadline, which is September of 2026?”
Dave Pagnotta: I think Cooley, I think they want to definitely get ahead of this. And I know at the start of the season Gary was talking about, well, if we can get something around All-Star, that’d be wonderful. I think that’s very optimistic. I do think they’re going to try to hammer things out.
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Obviously, the NHLPA is going to conduct all their player meetings throughout the first half of the season, bouncing around from market to market. Marty Walsh and company will be doing that to get a feel for for the players and where their positions are on a variety of different topics and once that kind of concludes, then I think that’s going to set the tone for negotiations towards an extended CBA.
Neither side wants there to be any type of stall or pause in the momentum that’s been built up here over the last several years. So I think they definitely want to get ahead of this. They’ve made that clear, but I think they will get ahead of this and kind of fine tune certain things.
I’m sure expansion is going to be a topic of on the next CBA as to where exactly that money is getting divvied up because right now, that goes straight to the owners. And I think there’s some strategy being played off there.
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Before the next CBA expires, do we see two more teams get entered into the mix in the next 18 months or so for the owners to collect all that money? We’ll see. Certainly, the argument from the League side is that, hey, we’re creating more jobs, and that’s where we’re going to offset, and that’s where the splits are going to happen.
So we’ll see if the NHLPA kind of ruffles a few feathers there with respect to how the money gets kind of allocated. But beyond that, they’ve got to talk about further international play, the reduction of preseason games to four, expanding the season to 84 games and a few other minor things, and probably some not-so-minor things that need to be addressed as well.
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But the bottom line, guys, is that the league is ridiculously healthy, and they want to keep this momentum building. Both sides want to do that, and that’s why I think there’s certainly a desire to get something done well in advance of the expiry after a year from now.
I think next summer we’re going to hear a little bit of noise.”