Circumventing The CBA - Legally and Lamorielloey
by Derek Zona on Oct 8, 2010 2:30 PM MDT
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PrintIt's no secret that the Canadian Hockey League enjoys protected status granted to it by the NHL. Once signed by an NHL team, players drafted into the the CHL systems (the Ontario Hockey League, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and the Western Hockey League) are required to remain with their CHL teams or move to the NHL. The American Hockey League is not an option for them. The agreement in place between the NHL and the CHL restricts player movement, purposefully, to only other CHL teams or their NHL team. In order for a player from a CHL team to play in the AHL, he must turn 20 years old by December 31st of the upcoming season - OR - have completed four seasons of CHL eligibility. There exists a clause that allows CHL players to play in the AHL once their CHL season is over, provided the AHL season is still ongoing, regardless of age or eligibility qualifications. However, that player must return to the CHL the following season.
The CHL gets a labor pool tethered to the league, drawing fans and selling tickets. The NHL gets a developmental league devoted solely to hockey. Typically, the deal works for both sides - this agreement doesn't impact prospect development to a great degree, and everyone but the AHL goes home happy. The AHL, on the other hand, accepts and welcomes all players over the age of eighteen, regardless of junior status. I say typically this deal works for both sides because circumstances arise from time-to-time making this agreement a blockade in player development.
An idea I've discussed in the past is sending these tweeners (too good for the CHL, but not good enough for the NHL and not eligible for the AHL) to Sweden to play in a professional league. To clarify, this must be done prior to signing the player to an entry-level contract and it must be done unofficially, off of the books. For example, last season, the Oilers should have, through back channels, unofficially asked Jordan Eberle to play for Skelleftea HC in the Swedish Elite League, rather than sign his ELC. Nothing in the NHL-CHL agreement or the CBA governs CHL players leaving their CHL teams to go overseas, so Eberle would not break any agreements in doing so.
Edmonton would, again, off of the books, send money to Skelleftea HC to pay Eberle, and in this case, Edmonton would make that transfer equivalent to his NHL ELC. Skelleftea HC would contract Eberle like any other SEL player and pay him the money given to them by Edmonton. In Eberle's case, Edmonton would have sent $1,158,333 to Skelleftea HC as Eberle's salary.
Everyone in this scenario benefits except the CHL and cash-poor NHL teams that don't have the ability to pay large amounts of money for non-NHL developmental years. For the player, especially in the case of Eberle, it's like discovering gold. Rather than another season in the WHL, he's now earning seven figures in Sweden. In Eberle's case, it might be harder to convince the player to go to the SEL for a season unless you can convince him that he is going back to the OHL and won't get an ELC. Teams might find it difficult to play hardball with superstars, but the offer of the full ELC with bonuses, rather than just the base with a chance to earn bonuses might be an incentive. The player also benefits from an extra year of development in a more difficult league and the benefit should be a better NHL player in his first year. Player agents would certainly endorse deals like this - they begin receiving a much larger piece of the pie much earlier in the player development cycle and it should benefit them long term because the player's second contract should be larger if the player is able to make a larger impact in the NHL during his ELC.
One concern raised by Tyler is that tweeners are more likely to get hurt playing against men in a professional league and the risk is much greater for the player to agree to something like this. In that case, the NHL team, again off of the books, could pay the insurance premiums to allow the player to purchase a career/business insurance policy to protect the player should the he suffer an injury.
NHL teams are able remove professional development years from the salary cap, yet increase the development cycle for their tweener. In the long run this should create better NHL players for a much smaller cap hit. Of course, cash-poor NHL teams wouldn't be able to execute a plan like this, and it's not likely that they'd be happy with their fellow owners for trying an obvious circumvention of the CBA. And it is an obvious circumvention of the CBA. Outside of an NCAA-like booster program, it's an obvious violation of the CBA. Only the slickest and/or quietest of management teams would be able to pull something like this off, but doing this with a lesser-light like James Wright or Jordan Eberle is much easier than trying it with a first overall pick.
One way to get all of the benefit of everything mentioned above and be completely above-board, completely kosher, is to ask the tweener to outright move to the SEL. According to The Hockey News in 2008 the average player salary in European leagues were as follows:
Swedish Elite League: $200,000
Swiss Nationalliga A: $170,000
German Eishockey Liga: $150,000
Czech Extraliga: $100,000
Slovak Extraliga: $75,000
Finnish SM-Liiga: $67,000
If an NHL team were to pay premiums on a hefty insurance policy and legally count it against their salary cap number (a nominal sum in NHL dollars) and ask an unsigned player to leave for Skelleftea HC, wouldn't a young player jump at the opportunity to make a couple of hundred thousand dollars playing professionally with a big insurance policy?
Two ways to skirt the system, one far outside the bounds of the CBA, one well within the bounds of the CBA, both producing the same result. Neither would've helped the Oilers out of the Taylor Hall decision, but the latter may have helped them develop Jordan Eberle.
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I’ve thought for years that it would be in an NHL team’s interest to outright own (or maybe partly own) a high-level European club. Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, whichever works out. It would allow the team much more control and require less wink-wink nudge-nudge negotiations. The end result is exactly the same as what you’re talking about.
That also has the added benefit of being a place to send a guy like Omark (or some other older European tweener) who isn’t NHL ready, but doesn’t want to play in a NA minor league. Which does affect midseason callups.
After Eberles game last night, how can one argue with having sent him back to the WHL? It obviously did no harm to his development.
I think an under-the-table deal is probably a bad idea. Having a player move overseas like that would be suspicious to begin with, and there are so many people involved that there’s a reasonable chance someone would let something slip.
With the up-front option, I like it, but still wonder about what terms are involved in the CHL agreement. When a player is drafted into the CHL, do they expressly agree not to play professionally anywhere but the NHL until age “X”? I don’t know, but I suspect there might be. If there is such a provision, then the idea would end up being a non-starter.
I agree that the up-front option would be better. And it’s possible that there is a clause in the contracts but would a clause like that be legally enforceable? The NHL used to have the reserve clause in all their contracts which was challenged by the WHA and found to be monopolistic (if that’s even a word). It might end up being a legal battle for the first player but it could open the door for plenty more.
Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact.
I don’t enough about either the agreement or the law to know whether or not that kind of agreement would be legally enforceable, but I do know the owners of the Oil Kings won’t be the ones to make a legal challenge. That doesn’t, of course, mean someone couldn’t try it.
by Scott Reynolds on Oct 8, 2010 3:58 PM MDT up reply actions
You’re essentially talking about the problems that Martin Frk experienced coming the other way this year, right?
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Yeah, pretty much. They have to pay off his Czech team IIRC.
by Scott Reynolds on Oct 8, 2010 11:08 PM MDT up reply actions
RFAs Too
I’ve thought about something similar for RFAs
The Giordano option.
Use it for tweeners
Qualify the guy
Organize something overseas
He signs a two-year contract there with an out after one.
Then bing him back after one year – Peckham would’ve been a good candidate this year.
The problem I see with this idea is two fold.
First, as you stated, the deal works for the leagues of the CHL because they get to keep not quite ready for prime time talent that makes their teams competitive, exciting and a draw for fans who want to see their prospects, or even highly drafted picks, play for cheap. This helps the CHL, and frankly the NHL, because it keeps the talent pool deep and lets younger prospects play against older players who are talented but may lack the physique to play in the NHL, instead of playing against older players who have the physique but not the talent.
Secondly, as you also pointed out, poorer clubs cannot develop prospects this way. This immediately gives an advantage to big money clubs who can send their lads overseas instead of having them “wallow” in the CHL. Why would the “parity-is-all” NHL want to encourage this?
While the talent drain that would occur would not be as drastic as what is happening to euro juniors losing talent to the CHL, it still sets up a scenario where the CHL becomes less talented if this practice continues or escalates. Both the problems create a shallower, weaker league, which could create a feedback loop, eventually. Superstar is too good for the CHL, plays in europe, others follow suit, soon, no superstars in CHL, the CHL becomes a poorer development league.
The CHL has been a good development league, and there is no real evidence that I have seen that proves a player is “stunted” by an extra year or two. There are the Taylor Halls of tomorrow to play against, and the coaches aren’t two bit rubes either. Many have pointed out the benefit of sending Hall back to learn a two way game, or a different position, and frankly those seem valid.
Rookies rarely go supernova upon joining the league, and often their performance is boosted by the fact that they eat up minutes on a poor team.
The CHL has been a good development league, and there is no real evidence that I have seen that proves a player is "stunted" by an extra year or two.
Do you mind if I argue in the same manner for a moment?
The best way to develop Swedish talent is the Swedish Elite League, I’ve seen no evidence that proves a player is stunted by three years in the SEL.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
I don’t disagree.
The difference between the SEL and the CHL, however, is the SEL has a much larger talent pool to draw from: Euros not good enough for the NHL who don’t want to bother with the AHL, former NHLers going home to wind down a career, borderline players who can make a little more cash in europe and swedish prospects who aren’t ready to make the jump, like MPS.
The CHL gets north american prospects under 21 and a handful of euros (euros who are draining the talent pools of some countries and stunting overall development of lesser slovakians, czechs, etc., if the IIHF is to be believed). If you take the top 6 players from the CHL, it’s like depriving the NHL of Ovechkin, Crosby, Keith, Green, H. Sedin and Miller (Just examples, not a definitive top six by far). The league would still soldier on, obviously, but the game would be less competitive.
Then, as I said, if this practice escalates, why wouldn’t this become a standard practice? Perhaps 15 clubs start sending 2-4 of their prospects overseas. MPS was a second round pick, no? Two eighteen year olds and two nineteen year olds to the SEL, not such a bad idea.
So then there’s 30-60 top flight prospects, and at least half are probably CHLers, if not more.
And furthermore, MPS was playing in the SEL at 16! So if NHL clubs start looking at talent that way, maybe the hockey parents who sends their kid from Regina to Prince George thinks its a better idea to send their kid to Germany, sweden, switzerland, etc.
The potential consequence of this practice could be a weaker CHL, which means that while elite prospects would benefit, the lads who become third line checkers and fourth line grinders suddenly play in a weaker league, and this means a weaker development pool for the hundreds of journeymen the NHL relies on from north american development. Especially as the european leagues get stronger and more borderline talent stays home for bigger dollars.
Firstly, Paajarvi was taken 10th overall and was very highly ranked in his age group from pretty well the beginning, so any worries about a bunch of young draft eligible N.A.‘s playing in Europe are almost certainly unfounded. Further, like the CHL, most European leagues have import rules, and most teams won’t want to use one of those spots on a kid who won’t be around for very long. A lot of the European leagues can’t even hold onto their own talent right now – a lot of the top Europeans are coming to the CHL. I agree that losing five or six guys would hurt the CHL, and that’s a plausible figure, but the “nightmare scenario” presented just doesn’t seem realistic to me right now.
by Scott Reynolds on Oct 9, 2010 3:14 AM MDT up reply actions
If you take the top 6 players from the CHL, it’s like depriving the NHL of Ovechkin, Crosby, Keith, Green, H. Sedin and Miller (Just examples, not a definitive top six by far). The league would still soldier on, obviously, but the game would be less competitive.
You aren’t taking the top six players from the CHL. The NHL is doing that. And the CHL isn’t dying. Look at my list of players from last season.
Then, as I said, if this practice escalates, why wouldn’t this become a standard practice? Perhaps 15 clubs start sending 2-4 of their prospects overseas. MPS was a second round pick, no? Two eighteen year olds and two nineteen year olds to the SEL, not such a bad idea.
It’s a horrible idea if they aren’t ready for it. Re-read the article. I’m talking about a very specific circumstance here. Tweeners.
So then there’s 30-60 top flight prospects, and at least half are probably CHLers, if not more.
Again, six per year is probably the number. And of the players I listed from last season, Sbisa and Wright were already in the NHL and Kane went to the NHL.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
No, the CHL isn’t dying and it never will because the grassroots support is too deep.
The calibre of competition is very high right now. Take a star player from 2 teams from each of the leagues, the level will drop slightly. And perhaps that slight drop will convince other GMs that their boy is also a tweener, because they may not be NHL material, but why waste 19 in a weak league when they can play men.
So 3-6 becomes 6-9. Then the next one comes along. If Euros took canadian and american teens, why not target 16 year old crosby jr for a 2 year boost?
So now it’s 6-9 18 year olds and a 16 year old phenom. Euro GMs maybe start to see if they can book a 17 year old first rounder to shore up the second line with alexandre daigle for a year or two. So we lose 2-4 more players, and the CHL is weaker, making it a less desirable breeding ground for talent, leading to more potential defection, etc.
Dooms day prediction? Perhaps, but do you really think the NHL wants euros snooping through the strongest minor hockey system in the world? The KHL would have a field day.
This all also stems from the idea that kane, hall, eberle, etc wouldn’t benefit as much from another year in the CHL, which is a dubious claim as long as the CHL remains competitive.
While the talent drain that would occur would not be as drastic as what is happening to euro juniors losing talent to the CHL, it still sets up a scenario where the CHL becomes less talented if this practice continues or escalates.
Six to ten kids per year over sixty teams is not a “talent drain”.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Except that it’s probably six to ten of the best players in the league. Granted, they’ll lose some anyway to the NHL, but even three or four of the very best players is pretty significant.
by Scott Reynolds on Oct 8, 2010 11:12 PM MDT up reply actions
Unless it escalates and the 16 year old next one goes to europe, and then 16 year olds start looking at bigger dollars and bigger competition in europe. If 5 16, 17, 18 and 19 year olds made an exodus to europe that’s 20 players. Imagine the quality of the NHL without 20 of its top players.
How many 16 year olds are ready for a professional league?
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Taylor might need another year in Windsor but you KNOW the Oilers will not send him back.
And MPS was a 10th overall, 1st round pick.
RT40 writes with An Oilers Refinery and is an avid hockey fan.
Derek obviously believes in cutting off his own nose to spite his face.
Yep…destroying your primary prospect development league is a “brilliant” idea for the NHL!
Easy there, Captain Hyperbole.
Pulling six to ten extra kids per year from the CHL is destroying nothing. Though, if we’re going to bring up strawmen and attempt to put words in my posts, then you obviously believe the NHL is killing the CHL by pulling those kids directly into the NHL! I can’t believe you!
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
What happens when the CHL starts denying your teams’ scouts access and cooperation?
What happens in the next negotiation between the CHL and the NHL?
What if the CHL begins signing players to contracts tying them to the junior club till 20? There are limited number of US college scholarships.
What happens when the CHL starts denying your teams’ scouts access and cooperation?
What happens in the next negotiation between the CHL and the NHL?
What if the CHL begins signing players to contracts tying them to the junior club till 20?
Do you actually believe the CHL sits in a position of power?
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
This is a brilliant idea!!!!! I mean it. See no squiggles!
Just look at how Paajarvi looks today after that season playing with the men. By the way, any one have Tambo’s email address? Let’s send him this link.
You don’t mind, Derek, if he decides to take credit for this spectacularly original thought do you? :)
he above-board version is interesting; the below-board circumvention route is nuts
No team would pay a player under the table when doing so is not just a circumvention but an article 50 violation that — when discovered — would result in penalties including the forfeiture of every game the player had played in, in the NHL, to that point.
Seriously, imagine the Oilers pay Taylor Hall under the table to play in Sweden or wherever. In two years he joins the Oilers and two years after that they win the cup. Or five cups. It doesn’t matter. Because whenever Bettman or Bettman Jr discovers the secret monies, the investigation, which has no statute of limitations, would put all of that in jeopardy. And there would probably be a few fans of other teams who would have an opinion about this.
Reggie Bush. If his problems at USC caused the Saints to have to give back Super Bowl rings.
Wait till this year.
Like the title says, “Legally and Lamorielloey”
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
What makes you think it is legal?
The NHL has a contract with the CHL. Intentionally circumventing a contract (the payola from the Oilers to the European team, the Oilers are still in effective control of the player, etc. etc., all the types of stuff that would be revealed in the discovery process of a lawsuit).
The player leaving of his own accord to go to a european league for a larger payday, the second option, is perfectly legal and ethical, hence two options, "Legally and Lamorielloey"
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
And who is going to lie under oath before a judge in court in a civil lawsuit about where the money is coming from, the player, the agent, the GM, the owner?
What if the CHL is able to get an injunction against the player playing anywhere?
The reputational risk to the owner and to the agent is too dangerous for them to engage in this type of unethical subversion of a legally binding contract between the NHL and the CHL.
I may be wrong, but I don’t think the second option is intended to involve any lying at all (which is why I’m not sure it would work). Honestly, I think a team would do better to simply arrange a transfer fee with the CHL team so that when they “offer” the player back to the CHL, the CHL simply declines. Windsor, for example, knows that Taylor Hall probably isn’t coming back. If the Oilers offered them $500,000 to decline their option on him so that the Oilers could play him in the AHL (or Europe), they might be inclined to take it knowing that a refusal probably means that they get nothing.
by Scott Reynolds on Oct 9, 2010 12:00 PM MDT up reply actions
Did you even read the second option?
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
i actually have a problem with this. It looks very good on paper, but there is one huge drawback to this strategy. The ice surface. European play hockey on a bigger surface than NA. So if a prospect leaves North American hockey for european hockey, he ends up spending crucial amount of time adjusting to bugger surface, and then he comes back to North America and will have to spend some more time re-adjusting to NA surfaces. For prospects it is important that they keep spending time on progression of skill/speed and improve on deficient things. Having to worry about adjustment to a different style of hockey altogether is a lot to ask.
Sins can be forgiven but conscience is a killer.
You know, Sum, I thought about this as well, but the tougher adjustment offensively is to the smaller surface and the tougher adjustment defensively is to the larger surface. Let them learn the defensive trade the hard way, I’m actually okay with that.
It’s the best counter-argument to the strategy, by the way. Well thought out, sir.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
I’ve been thinking about the exact same thing lately. The absolute best 18-year-old players are ready to play in the NHL, but the group below them would probably benefit from a year in a lesser pro league. For European players it is easy, they are usually already playing in a pro league, they can just postpone signing their ELC by a year or two. College kids can enter the AHL.
While some NHL clubs already have (had) co-operation agreements with European clubs (Ässät and Stars, more recently JYP and Bruins in Finland), they have usually sent over mid-level prospects who have needed work with some specific area in their game. I don’t think NHL clubs want to ruin their relationships with their CHL counterparts by luring their best players to Europe.
There are also risks in this kind of operation. I don’t that the ice surface is a serious issue, but getting icetime might be. European pro leagues are highly competitive. If the youngster isn’t ready to help the team win some games, he won’t play.
I still think the benefits would be huge. Theoretically, the Oilers could now have the entire fan base of an Euro club following Jordan Eberle, buying merchandise and maybe falling in love with the Oilers as well. Then they could come to play a couple of games in Europe in a couple of years and the “homecoming” of Eberle would make it every bit more worthful for the fans.
I still think the benefits would be huge. Theoretically, the Oilers could now have the entire fan base of an Euro club following Jordan Eberle, buying merchandise and maybe falling in love with the Oilers as well. Then they could come to play a couple of games in Europe in a couple of years and the "homecoming" of Eberle would make it every bit more worthful for the fans.
I didn’t consider the long-term business ramifications. Nice thought.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
CHLPA?
Slightly OT, but these kids really do play for peanuts. Why has no one tried to organize a CHLPA?
The income disparity (I.e. Moose Jaw vs. Saskatoon) might become an issue, but a lot of these teams are fairly wealthy and they pay next to nothing for their key labour component.
by Woodguy on Oct 9, 2010 11:44 AM MDT via mobile reply actions
The kids need an advocate, to begin with. They also need to organize three leagues within the CHL, not just one. I’m kind of surprised a powerful agent hasn’t tried it on a smaller degree, to be honest. The OHL, which hasn’t had a legit draft or player transfer since ever is ripe for this stuff.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
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