Briefly Breaking Down What Each Side Has Given in the CBA Negotiations

After coming seemingly so close to the end of the NHL’s lockout of its players last night, it’s worth noting exactly what each side would have given up from the previous CBA in (what we know of) the NHLPA’s most recent offer.

NHLPA

• 50/50 revenue split, down from 57/43 in the players’ favor
• Contract length limit of eight years, as opposed to the current no limit

NHL

Oh, sure, the NHL offered $300 million in “make whole” payments, up from their previous offer. Those payments, of course, are requested by the NHLPA to make up for the fact that dropping from a 57/43 split to 50/50 means player contracts signed under the previous CBA would not be fully honored. So if we want to say that the “make whole” cancels out the players’ acceptance of the 50/50 split, we’re still looking at the players accepting a contract limit and the owners giving up nothing.

Negotiations are give-and-take. There has been no give from the NHL here, only from the NHLPA. These are not negotiations, they’re a list of demands. It’s just a matter of how many demands the NHLPA will have to accept.