The NHL and NHL Players Association have reached a tentative agreement on a return-to-game plan to restart the 2019-20 season and a memorandum of understanding that adds another four years to the end of the current collective bargaining agreement.
The next step in the process is voting. The NHL board of governors must approve the deals. Once the NHLPA executive committee (one player representative from each of the 31 teams) approves the package, the agreement advances to a full membership vote.
The return to game plan includes rules and requirements for the restart of Phases 3 and 4 of the season after the NHL was halted on March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Phase 3 is the opening of training camps, which is scheduled for July 13 in individual cities, as well as traveling to central cities on July 26 for additional training and exhibition games. Under the plan, the copy of which was obtained by ESPN on Sunday, the Eastern Conference teams will play in Toronto and the Western Conference teams in Edmonton. The conference finals and the Stanley Cup final will be held in Edmonton.
Phase 4 is the restart of the season in those core cities with a 24-team postseason tournament. The qualifying round of the five-game series for numbers 5-12 at each conference is scheduled to begin on August 1.
The return to game plan includes a testing protocol and explains how positive testing will be addressed; describes the requirements for social distancing within training facilities and central cities; specify who can participate in central cities; defines life within bubbles; establishes when families can join players; and explains what happens if the positive tests are too numerous to continue playing.
If players decide not to participate in the restart, they can choose not to participate without asking questions within three days after the vote of the full members ratifies the new CBA.
The current CBA was due to expire in September 2022. The new CBA would overwrite the agreement for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons and add another four seasons.
According to sources, the new CBA requires a fixed salary cap of $ 81.5 million for next season, where it will remain until league hockey-related revenue reaches $ 4.8 billion, which was the amount projected for this season before stop it; a 10% one-time salary deferral by players next season, paid over the course of three seasons from 2022-23; Limited custody withholdings each season, starting at 20% next season to make up for the shortfall in income for homeowners, before dropping to 6% in the last year of the deal; and a return to the Winter Olympics in 2022 and 2026, pending an agreement between the NHL and the International Olympic Committee.
The new CBA was seen as a critical aspect of the return-to-game plan due to the economic uncertainty of COVID-19’s closure and its impact on next season’s revenue. The CBA will cover revenue generated by the upcoming NHL broadcast contract in the US and by the highly anticipated Seattle expansion team, which will begin playing in 2021-22.
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