This is not the news I want to talk about at all but I’d be doing the great viewers of Branded Sports a disservice if I didn’t bring it up. This week is a huge week in determining if we are going to see an NHL season for 2021. It looked like we were setup to start the season on January 1st just a few weeks ago and as of now that is still the goal but it’s starting to look like it might not happen.
The league and the owners are now asking the players to defer an additional 13% of their pay for the upcoming season. The players, to put it lightly are fucking pissed. They had already agreed to defer 10% when they signed the new CBA agreement back in July and now the owners are asking for more. Pretty greedy move here by the owners if you ask me. Look I get it, they have to make money as well and not having fans in attendance is going to hurt their large bank accounts. At the same time though I am more on the side of the players here when it comes to this and I think most people might be.
A lot of these guys just spent months away from their families to go play and try and win a Stanley Cup in two bubble cities that wasn’t the full experience they were promised. They already agreed to defer a percentage of their pay and now the owners are asking for more? Come on man….The league had to know that COVID wasn’t going anywhere and that there was going to be a realistic chance fans wouldn’t be able to be in attendance for games at least to start the new year. This is something they should have planned for back in July when the latest CBA was signed. COVID is still going on and these players will be putting themselves and their families at risk whenever they start back up. You’re already asking for a lot out of these guys and an agreement was already made so to now go back and ask them to defer more money is a scumbag move.
I really hope the players stand their ground and the owners realize how ridiculous this is and they get this shit figured out. If things don’t get solved this week the NHL season could be in trouble and I for one can not go through another lost NHL season. Every other league has been able to figure this thing out and it’s time that the NHL does the same. Honor the agreement you already have in place, realign the divisions for this year, put in the proper protocols, and for the love of god GIVE ME HOCKEY BACK!
We will see how these next few days pan out and as always make sure you keep it here with Branded Sports as I will do my best to keep all you loyal Branders up to date on everything going on around the NHL world. The Thanksgiving turkey will not get in my way of the meetings that will be taking place this week I promise you that.
-Walsh
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Twitter Image-Nick Kypreos