If anyone else was paying attention yesterday when the National Hockey League Player's Association bowed to NHL demands to close the front-weighted salary loophole; you may be convinced as I am that there are big problems with the hockey player's union. They should have been fighting to allow these contracts to continue and could have fought a class action lawsuit on behalf of its members had the NHL voided previously approved contracts. The advantage to the players for allowing these contracts is very clear; it maximizes the amount of actual cash they can extract from a contract by front loading the payments. Their members would leave less money on the table when they retire before the expiration of the long-term deal should the loophole have been allowed to continue.
Some sportstalk radio conspiracy theorists are even suggesting that the NHL timed this to take advantage of the union's weakness, which may not be as crazy as it sounds. Something is wrong with the NHLPA that they did not fight a battle to continue this practice. I don't believe that the NHL ever intended to void Luongo's contract or Hossa's contract a year after they were approved. They threatened to void Marc Savard's contract, which was signed before he sustained a serious concussion and now his long term value has changed; and Savard's agent threatened to sue. I think that the NHL threatened to void those contracts to scare the union into accepting the terms of an amendment to the salary cap rules.
It is the only thing that makes any sense.
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