MLB FIGHTS OVER MONEY WHILE NHLERS CAN’T WAIT TO BATTLE FOR THE CUP
When NHL players return this summer — if they return at all — they won’t be paid for playoff participation. And they can’t wait to play for nothing but the Stanley Cup.
That says something about the athlete and the sport, although in fairness, they have already received all but one cheque of their season’s salaries. The world may be fighting itself everywhere, with so many questions, but hockey players still want that trophy.
In baseball, which may be ready to begin its season by early July, no one has been paid anything yet. And all they’re doing is fighting over dollars. There won’t be ticket revenue in any sport for a while. There won’t be fans in the stands or money from parking or concessions.
Major League Baseball has come up with a complex 67-page plan to bring the sport back, but none of it will mean anything if the players can’t agree to a reduction in pay beyond simply cutting salaries in half for a season that will be cut in half.
Each sport, each league, faces its own individual difficulties and challenges regarding testing and social distancing and the possibility of travel. But it’s good to know, in terrible times, how much players still want the Stanley Cup.
The settlement looked huge. The lawsuit against the Canadian Hockey League and its Canadian operators finally came to a conclusion on Friday when it was announced that $30 million will be paid out by junior hockey to those involved with the class action. At first glance, it looked like the players won large with their suit. But first glances are often deceiving.
The lawyers won huge — they’ll get somewhere in the $10-million range. But the purpose of the legal battle launched by players, who believe they were wronged in junior hockey and not paid an appropriate wage, was essentially lost. The rules of operating in junior hockey haven’t changed. Teams will still operate without paying reasonable wages to players.
The $20 million or so remaining will be split among the more than 4,000 players who were involved in the class-action suit. That money will mostly be paid by insurance carriers. It’s a pretty small settlement, big picture, for each individual player, especially considering the grief many of them took for being involved in trying to change the system.
They’ll probably get a few thousand dollars each. In the end, it was a lot of noise and a lot of fight and a lot of purpose and a lot of money moving around — and basically nothing has changed.
The hope now is that at last junior operators will learn from being so crass and nasty with players. That’s the hope, but it may not be a reality.
Defenceman better than P.K. Subban at this point in time? The list includes Roman Josi, John Carlson, Drew Doughty, Victor Hedman, Alex Pietrangelo, Ryan Suter, Brent Burns, Mark Giordano, Miro Heiskanen, Kris Letang, Seth Jones, Dougie Hamilton, Shea Weber, Morgan Rielly, Oliver Ekman-larsson, Erik Karlsson, Thomas Chabot, Zach Werenski, Zdeno Chara, Charlie Mcavoy, and the kids Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar. And I’m probably missing a few. If Subban wants back in the Norris Trophy conversation, that’s a large group to leap over ... The only three defencemen with worse plus-minus numbers than Jake Gardiner this season all played for the terrible Detroit Red Wings ... For some reason, and we’re not sure why, commissioner Gary Bettman wants former Oilers and Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli back in the NHL. He’d like to place him with the historically dysfunctional Arizona Coyotes ...
It still bothers me that the Toronto Maple Leafs and Raptors have raised ticket prices for next season, assuming there is one. Who can afford more today than they could yesterday? ... For a late bloomer like Toronto Blue Jays infielder Cavan Biggio, losing a half season or even an entire season at this time, it has to be personal. Especially when his career seems poised to take off.
Weird possibility if hockey comes back this summer: A Toronto-versus-montreal playoff series may happen for the first time in 41 years. Might just be a best of three, depending on which format the NHL eventually settles on. But it could happen. Overall, the Leafs and Habs have played 15 times in a variety of playoff series, with Montreal winning eight of those contests. They last met in the playoffs in 1979. The Leafs haven’t won a playoff game against the Habs since they won the Stanley Cup in 1967. When the NHL season was halted, Montreal had 71 points, 10 fewer than the Leafs
... Imagine that: A Montreal-versus-toronto series with no fans in the stands.
Lebron James’ production company is planning to do a docudrama on the Houston Astros cheating scandal ... It’s 13 months since Dion Phaneuf last played an NHL game and he still hasn’t announced his retirement. Odd . ... Did anybody else find it funny that London MP Peter Fragiskatos wasn’t happy about the CFL asking for government support because too many of its players are American? In fact, most of the highest paid players in the CFL are American and guess where they pay their taxes? Here ... By the way, Auston Matthews, Johnny Gaudreau and Brock Boeser are Americans playing in Canadian NHL cities. They also pay the majority of their taxes in Canada. Does Fragiskatos know that? ... I understand the CFL meeting with government and asking for help. I understand the CFLPA meeting with government and asking for help. I don’t understand them doing it separately.