The new CBA and how it affects the Rangers

The owners and players are very close to a new contract that impacts the New York Rangers

Expect an announcement with the details on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the NHL and the NHL Players Association (NHLPA).  The agreement will affect all teams, but what are the ramifications for the New York Rangers?

Everyone expected the announcement by July 4, but it looks like the decision will be early this week.  It has to be voted on by the entire membership before it can be ratified.  It will be an extension of the current agreement and will guarantee no labor issues through the 2025-26 season.

The important piece is that it lays out the parameters related to COVID-19 and the resumption of play so the NHL can conclude this season.   Frank Seravelli of TSN filed a story with most of the details about the agreement.

While all teams are affected by the new CBA, there are some elements that will have more of an impact on the Rangers.   Here’s the important stuff that fans need to know.

Return to play dates

The Rangers training camp will now be scheduled to open on July 13.  In less than two weeks after that, the teams will travel to the two hub cities, Edmonton and Toronto.  Unofficially, the word is that the Eastern Conference will be hubbed in Toronto.  While that may give the Maple Leafs a slight advantage in their series against Columbus, due to familiarity with the rink and facilities, with no fans in the arena it should be negligible.

The first games in the hub cities are supposed to take place on August 1.  It’s unclear if there will be exhibition games before that or if they will go right into the best-of-five qualifying round. At any rate, the qualifying round is supposed to be done by August 9.

The first big date for the Rangers could be August 10, if they lose in the qualifier.  That’s the date of Phase Two of the Entry Draft Lottery.  If they are in the Alexis Lafreniere sweepstakes they will have a 12.5% shot at getting him in the draft.

So far, there is no indication that any Rangers are considering this, but per the agreement, any player can opt out of the return to play for any reason.  Considering the uncertainties of the pandemic, that’s an important factor. Late Sunday, Elliotte Friedman reported that the deadline for opting out is three days after the agreement is ratified.

That means no cold feet after play resumes if there are health risks.  There’s no word on the consequences if a player opts out after play has resumed.

Whether there are any specifics regarding the playoffs if there is an outbreak at one of the hub sites is still unknown.   There are still questions related to what the league will do if there is an outbreak on one team that would preclude them from playing.

Salary cap

As has been widely reported, the salary cap is supposed to remain at it’s current $81.5 million for the next two years.  Seravelli reports on an important distinction.  The $81.5 million cap  remains at that level until hockey-related revenue hits $4.8 billion, the pre-pandemic number that the league was supposed to hit in 2019-20.  Once revenues hit that number, the cap will be re-established based on revenue parameters from before COVID-19.

While everyone is assuming that revenues won’t rebound for a couple seasons,  they should definitely hit the new number in the 2022-23 season when the league gets a new national television deal.   The current deal nets the NHL $200 million annually from NBC and they are expecting a big payday.    As an example, in 2015 NBC doubled its rights fees for the English Premier League from $83 million to $167 million per year.  ABC is paying the NBA $2.7 billion a year for their rights.   MLB is getting $728 million a year from Fox.

One of the reasons Gary Bettman and the NHL are so set on resuming this season is that they need to prove that the NHL can be a ratings hits.  A successful return to play with big ratings could mean an even bigger television rights windfall.

The cap freeze will have a major impact on all teams including the Rangers who will have difficulty getting all of their restricted free agents signed and may have to resort to buy outs to make their number.   The one important piece of news is that there will be no compliance buyouts, something that would have benefited the Rangers greatly.

Escrow and other stuff

Escrow was a major issue for the players and it prompted an Instagram post from Artemi Panarin, threatening a boycott of the resumption of play without a resolution.

The new agreement reportedly contains a cap on escrow.   Due to the impact of COVID-19 escrow will be capped next season at 20% with it dropping to 14-18% in 2021-22, to 10% in 2022-23 and holding at six percent for the last three years of the deal.

One thing the players wanted and got was the right to play in the Olympics.  According to Seravelli, the players will be able to take part in the 2022 Beijing Olympics and the 2026 games in Milan.

The minimum NHL salary will hold at $750k for the next four seasons (it’s $700k now) before rising to $775 in 2024-25 and to $800k in 2025-26.

There were numerous other issues that were hammered out including new rules on trades with no movement clauses and limits on front loaded contracts.  When all the particulars are sorted out we’ll be able to get into it further, but for now, these are the issues that are most important to the Blueshirts.

The NHLPA needs a majority of votes and the membership is expected to ratify this new deal as soon as it is proposed.  With training camps due to open in a week and a million details to be ironed out regarding the hub cities, all of this needs to get done in a matter of hours, rather than days.

It will be the final hurdle towards getting back to playing hockey with only the uncertainties of the pandemic that could throw a wrench into these intricate plans.

Writer’s note: Some new information was reported regarding players opting out of the return to play and the story was updated to reflect that.