The Fourth Period: David Pagnotta and Dennis Bernstein talking about salary cap and potential changes to the schedule
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Kate Pettersen: “Absolutely there’s been plenty of chatter. We haven’t we haven’t had a shortage of things to talk about. One last thing to touch on Monday and Tuesday of this week, it was the Board of Governors meeting, and Gary Batman said that he hopes that they can begin negotiations on a CBA extension with the NHLPA in February.
Now, some of the things that we’re hearing is that there might be an even greater increase in the salary cap, potentially an expansion of the schedule. What are you guys hearing coming out of those meetings? And let’s talk a few more rumblings and rumors.
Pagnotta” Yeah. Yeah, everybody loves this kind of stuff, especially around the CBA. They got another season to go. Both sides want to get this done and there have been very loose preliminary discussions. But as you said, formal talks, they hope to start in February, in and around four nations
And they want to roll this out. They want to get something done by the summer. That seems to be the goal from the League side. I got to imagine the NHLPA wants the same thing. So they’re going to really intensify that once we get into the new year, into February and on.
And, you know, the lot of different talking points. A lot of going back and forth the season the salary cap is one of them, the seasons, the other the cap is going to go up minimum to $92.5 million dollars next season based on the current CBA.
After that, when the new CBA kicks in, there’s going to be a big inflator. So they’re trying to, like, smooth that jump, so we could see something in the 95 range. That’s the conservative guess right now, but that will be part of the CBA negotiations moving, moving forward.
They don’t finalize the next CBA officially, until the summer right before, during the Cup Finals, right before we get to July one. So they’ve got some time there.
On the schedule, really looks like we’re going to get to 84 games, as opposed to 82 where we are right now. That would take away some of the preseason time and shorten the preseason and add two regular season games, one home and one away for each club into next season.
And that may allow us if we start a little bit earlier, start of October, like we used to, get to a point where we end the playoffs and the Stanley Cup Final middle of June, as opposed to the end. So those are two big, big things to look at.
Bernstein: “Yeah, with respect to the CBA and salary cap. It’s time. Business is really good, right? So I hope the league and the Player Association could be aggressive. But look, the players deserve more, and they’ve had to go through escrow. They’ve had to add ceilings on it because of COVID. It’s time to be aggressive with the, with the payroll and get it as high as possible, because business is really good.
And I think for me, the overarching team this. It’s not about 84 games versus 82 or the salary cap going to 92 versus 95, the fact that if you go back 10 years, and I told you that they’re gonna have conversations to extend the CBA, you would told me, I’m nuts. It was so acrimonious between the PA and the NHL, and now we have a situation where we have labor peace.
We have basically, you know, to put everybody on the same page. Want to go forward, extend the CBA, make some tweaks. To me. That’s great. That note, that tells me that no work stoppages. We don’t want that, right? So I think just where we are with respect to the relationship between the league and the PA has been as good as it’s been, I think, in 20 years.
And you want to just leverage that and continue to put out this great product in a situation where the markets hot, you want to go forward, you don’t want any disruptions. And I think, to me, that that’s my biggest takeaway from all these conversations about the CBA.
Pettersen: “So I would assume that both of you are for bridging that gap in the cap increase and also for eliminating some preseason games, because we saw, you know, some some big injuries this year, a lot of star players sitting out. Wouldn’t it be more beneficial for the fans, for the overall product and for everything, for them to be able to be in action faster, more regular season games and, and eliminating some of the preseason games that are just a wash for everyone?
Yeah, plus, some teams are playing four preseason some teams are playing eight. Let’s just get to a middle ground, 3, 4 games max. Get to the regular season. Get this puppy going.
Bernstein: “And, and with respect to the salary cap, you know, look, the Oilers need to get that as high as possible so you can give Connor $20 million a year. It’s very important. So for them, they have a vested interest. Exactly, helps everybody.
Pagnotta: “You’re about to get, you’re about to get, radio’d, DB. I hope, I hope you know that.
Bernstein: “Okay, okay, well that’s okay.”
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