The NHL's collective bargaining agreement does not expire until Sept. 15, 2026. That discussions are set to begin on a new deal in early 2025 is already one step ahead of where hockey has been in labor negotiations in the past.
Commissioner Gary Bettman earlier this week said he expects talks with the NHL Players' Association to begin in February, around the time stakeholders are together for the 4 Nations Face-Off that stands as the latest example of collaboration in the sport. Both sides have issues to broach and changes they want, but the trajectory of the league combined with the strong working relationship between Bettman and union executive director Marty Walsh means there is reason for optimism in a sport that has had three labor stoppages in the past three decades.
Bettman is in the midst of canvassing owners and general managers and Walsh his membership of over 700 players to figure out the issues that are most important to them.
The salary cap system and 50/50 split of revenue that has been in place are not likely to change, and there is already an agreement in place to send NHL players to the Olympics in 2026 and 2030. That leaves a handful of topics to go over.
After previous negotiations centered on how to share money, owners and players have shifted their focus to growing the revenue available to all. Revenues are setting records each season thanks to new U.S. media rights deals, with another coming to Canada in '26, and fresh sources of income like the 4 Nations event, jersey and helmet advertisements and a series of sponsorship agreements.
There are still points of contention, of course.
Expansion fees have gone entirely to owners, including $500 million when Vegas joined and $650 million from Seattle. Bettman has said there are no current plans to expand beyond 32 teams, but it is no secret there is interest from ownership groups in Atlanta and elsewhere, and whether that counts as hockey-related revenue — which is shared with players — could be a talking point.
Hockey-related revenue, which includes ticket sales, TV money and more, is what determines the salary cap. After remaining flat and increasing minimally out of the pandemic, the cap for each team is now $88 million, with $92.5 million projected for next season.
With more revenue coming in, there is debate over whether players want to push for a quicker increase in the cap, which would boost salaries for players across the league.
“I like smooth and steady,” Bettman said Sunday in Boston. “No discussions yet, so when I say smooth and steady, that doesn’t mean I have any numbers in mind and it doesn’t mean the cap couldn’t conceivably go up faster, but we’re not anywhere near to having anything like a substantive discussion on that.”
Walsh said players would love to see the cap go up because “it lifts everyone up.”
“It’s not just talking about the top, marquee players,” Walsh said. “It’s talking about there’ll be opportunities for all other players to increase, as well. And I think that’s important about the cap going up, and it’s important for the revenue.”
The 2020 CBA extension included caps on the escrow kept from players' paychecks to even out the 50/50 split. Something like that is expected to continue as discussions heat up.
"It’s just deciding what things are important to you, what things you’d like to maybe be different,” Washington Capitals alternate player representative Trevor van Riemsdyk said Monday. “That’s a tough thing about all this is not everyone’s in the same position. Some guys are in the midst of long deals, some guys are looking to get new deals, so you’re going want different things."
From a league perspective, long-term injured reserve rules and how much money teams are spending over the cap may be among the tweaks requested. Player pensions, medical care and who gets the final say on surgeries and the schedule that has a protracted preseason and hockey until late June could come up from the union side.
The NHL, like other professional leagues, has a history of work stoppages. The 2004-05 lockout wiped out an entire season, and talks in 2012-13 pushed the start until January.
It is hard to envision that sort of trouble this time around. The early start has led to some speculation that a new agreement could be done by late spring or early summer — more than a year before the deadline.
Bettman said Walsh, a former federal labor secretary and before that mayor of Boston, “has a very professional, sophisticated approach" and understands that "everybody does better when you collaborate.”
“That doesn’t mean you don’t fiercely represent your constituents, but you pick and choose the things that are important — and the places where you can work together, you should for the greater good,” Bettman said. “He gets that better than anybody I’ve ever seen.”
This will be Walsh's first CBA negotiation. Don Fehr, known for his long run heading the Major League Baseball Players Association, was the union's executive director for the 2012-13 and 2020 talks, and before that it was Bob Goodenow in 2004-05.
“Marty obviously has a ton of experience working with unions,” van Riemsdyk said. "He’s a hard-nosed guy, he worked in Boston and we have the utmost confidence in him and his ability to portray to the owners what’s most important to the players."
Walsh said hockey has been in a transition period far enough away from bargaining talks to not have it be a day-to-day focus, and Bettman has warned against setting any sort of artificial timeline for a new deal.
The NHL is also in a strong place given the quality of the game on the ice and business booming around it. It does not benefit anyone to halt that momentum.
“You’ve had probably the greatest financial year, greatest gate year, one of the greatest if not the greatest TV year as far as audience,” Walsh said. “Going into collective bargaining, that’s a good place to be.”
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AP freelancer writer Ken Powtak in Boston contributed.
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