We all know who Allan Walsh is, right? A superstar NHL player agent that works for Octagon. He has clients such as Marc-Andre Fleury, Jonathan Drouin, Max Pacioretty, Jonathan Huberdeau, and former long-time Edmonton Oiler Andrej Sekera. To my knowledge, he also represents current Oilers William Lagesson and Ostap Safin. In addition to those players, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also fall under the Octagon representation umbrella.
Earlier today on Twitter Walsh posted the following,
The NHL is soft floating the idea with media if no deal with the NHLPA is reached on the Return to Play, it can unilaterally invoke Force Majeure and cancel the 2020-21 season.
There are so many flaws to this, I don’t know where to start. Does the NHL really think it can demand an additional $300M in concessions from players after negotiating the financial terms of the 20-21 season DURING the pandemic 4 months ago? The Players agreed to accept 72% of their contracts due to the pandemic. NHL owners cannot now assert they don’t like the deal, demand $300M more from the Players and if the Players don’t give in, cancel the season by invoking Force Majeure?
In reality, if the NHL cancels the 20-21 season because the Players won’t give another $300M in concessions, that is a LOCKOUT, which is expressly prohibited by CBA Art. 7.1 (b).
If the NHL lawyers are advising owners they have a winning case here, I suggest they go back to law school. Owners will be subjecting themselves to billions in potential damages if they falsely invoke Force Majeure to cancel the season.
One more point. What about the NHL owners who also own NBA teams where both teams play in the same buildings? The NBA regular season is starting Dec. 22nd. However, the NBA owners who also own NHL teams will invoke Force Majeure due to the pandemic and cancel the NHL season?
Now, I’m not going to try and blow smoke up your ass and come off like I understand a lick of any of this. I’m just some numpty sitting at a desk thousands of miles away from all of it. But, the way I see it on the surface is that the owners are trying to renege on a deal they made only months ago, and now the league, in cooperation with the owners, is looking for some leverage.
Can I ask though, is this not a great opportunity for the players to get back some of what they’ve lost in the past? Perhaps this is a perfect time to force through some rule changes or something like that?
Maybe I’m reading into Walsh’s quote a bit too much, but is the NHL working with the major media companies to make this as public as possible, and with that, will the companies who “go along” “get theirs” down the road?
What if TSN, NBC, or ESPN takes the owner’s side and they get their cookie when the TV rights are up in their country expire?
Regarding the NHLPA, Walsh is always working his ass off for the players, is there something waiting for him on the other end? Like the executive director of the player’s association?
The questions that I do have from Walsh’s comments are,
- How will the PA prove there’s no Force Majeure in the middle of a pandemic?
- How will the league prove there Force Majeure when Professional soccer around the globe is still being played, the NBA is already planning to start their new season before Christmas, and NFL has already been playing through everything?
- How will the NHL convince the powers that be that the players have to stump up $300M?
I know, I’m a bit of a simpleton… Hopefully, someone will take pity on my poor soul and give me a hand in the comments section. My Chinese is okay, my Legalese isn’t great.
If this is in response to the item in Insider Trading, Force Majeure could be applied if the NHLPA legally challenged a cancelled season by trying to establish an illegal lockout. Neither side wants to cancel the season. This was purely in response to speculation on PA strategy. https://t.co/lsLpJi4iHU
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) December 2, 2020
I like what Brian Wilde had to say about what the NHL is trying to do,
The owners signed a CBA with the players already. They already have done this and finished. When the signatures mean nothing, there is nothing. Trust is gone. Players can feel like owners will keep crying wolf.
As far as fans siding with billionaires over millionaires. An NHL career averages 3 years. That’s often 5 million for a career. Sounds like a lot. A billionaire owner makes that in 3 months interest on his money. Don’t tell an athlete that he needs to suck it up. Tell an owner.
I repeat one more time for the hard of hearing….A lockout is not allowed as per CBA deal signed 5 months ago.
“Hey Bob, give you 10 G for your car” “
Sure, Brian. Come over.”
“Bob, let’s sign the papers.”
“Cool.” (Bob & Brian sign)
“Super, Bob here’s 7. It’s all I got. See ya.”That example may seem silly but don’t let the fact that the CBA is big & super rich people are involved make it seem complex. It’s the honour of completed business signed & sealed. It’s simply honour. Like the honour of giving the amount of money for the car that you agreed to.
When I was a kid, the Edmonton Oilers financials were a bit of a tire fire. They could never keep their star players because they couldn’t afford them and that was with Glen Sather as their GM. I’m not sure if there’s any correlation here between what happened with the Oilers then and what’s happening with the league now, but I get a similar feeling. Meaning a slow-burning frustration. I feel aggravated that there are individuals who can end the insanity but due to ego or whatever, they choose to drag things on and on and on…
So where do you stand on all of it? I’m still with the players as there are about thousands of those (NHL, AHL, ECHL, European, leagues, etc) whose lives are being affected by the actions of 31 NHL owners who got caught making a bad deal.
It’s time for those owners to man up and make the ultimate sacrifice for the good of the game. Just as the players have done over and over.
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