Yeah, I'm looking forward to this season especially with Parise and Suter signing up with us. I hope there isn't going to be a lockout coming this fall. If there is one I hope it's short.
I'm very bummed . All our good older players like Heatley,Koivu,Parise,Suter/Backstrom just get a year older. They are all quickly leaving the prime years of their career. Its now or never for those guys. We need a young stud like Granlund/Brodin to step up and take this team to the next level with an above expectations season. If we wait everyone just gets older.
Sure our prospects get more seasoning but they need to be pushing for NHL spots not resting on their training and intensity because they know there is no point to push for the NHL this year. The hype and energy our team has gained in the offseason has no doubt trickled down to each and every player in the association making them want push harder to be apart of the revival of the team. This lockout is just going to kill that momentum not to mention from a fans perspective and all the new fans locally and nationally will lose interest after a lockout.
The only question for me is will it be a couple month lockout or a whole season lockout? Knowing Bettman and the owners, they'll **** it all up and we'll lose an entire season.
Does anyone recall how the contracts worked out during the last lockout?
i.e. Bouchard, Backstrom, etc. contracts are all up at the end of the season. Are those contracts now extended another year or are they still up after the calender season?
__________________
After Meaningless Win - 3/29/12 - Game 77 | SoH-"Who knows, that could have cost us a Cup tonight." | Dooohkay
Does anyone recall how the contracts worked out during the last lockout?
i.e. Bouchard, Backstrom, etc. contracts are all up at the end of the season. Are those contracts now extended another year or are they still up after the calender season?
Believe they would be up.
__________________
Blog: First Round Bust: A Cast of Thousands celebrating a rather dodgy track record of Minnesota Wild Drafting.
"Will beats skill when skill doesn't have enough will."
-Doug Woog
The part that pisses me off about all of this is the lack of urgency. Granted I don't know all the details behind everything that goes into this but it just seems to me that both sides procrastinated even going into this thing and both sides are dragging their feet now that we're in it..
The Owners & The NHLPA both knew this was coming for years. You'd think that both sides would already have had proposals ready to go. Maybe they couldnt start anything til after the Stanley Cup this year but I dont see any reasons why by July they weren't knee deep in this thing starting to get things hashed out!
I may be wrong but doesn't it seem like extremely unnecessary chunks of time have gone by before sides really starting doing anything.. First the Owners took their sweet time delivering their proposal. Then it took almost a month for the NHLPA to counter proposal. Then another few weeks go by and we get what, a combined 2 hours of meetings. These were supposed to be multiple full days worth of talks & negotiating but instead we got 45 minutes sessions then cancelling the rest of the day. Only to be told they'll talk again in a week.
I dont get it... I wouldnt be upset if I felt that both sides were truly trying to reach an agreement but it just seems that everyone is trying to puff their chest. How can grown ass men sit and act this way!?
Both sides 100% know that they can't get everything they want. With 20 days left in this BS you'd think there'd be meeting daily. I just dont understand what benefit there is in letting it go this far..
I know that the Owners benefit more from there actually being a lockout because it puts more pressure on the players but all its making me do is lose tons of respect for the owners. I think it makes them sound like bullies. Especially since the NHLPA said they'd agree to play under the current contract as long talks continued to move forward and the league said "No!". To me, that just says that the owners are greedy & are almost pouting until they get their way. There's no good faith shown..
Does anyone understand this more? Obviously I know it's not just as cut and dry as meeting in the middle and signing their names on a sheet of paper but I honestly don't understand the tactics used by either side... But if someone could explain to me why this is happening the way it is I would greatly appreciate it.
Because ownership will not lose much money by losing games compared to the players, and the longer the ownership makes the players wait, the more they will gain long-term.
The fact is that players have almost zero personal expenses meaning that player revenue = player profit. Owners have a lot of business expenses, including players. Owner revenue - owner cost = owner revenue.
The dirty little secret of these negotiations is that player profit >>>>>>> owner profit.
That's the only reason a lock-out is a threat. Because the players make more than the owners. That makes a lock-out more damaging to the players.
. All our good older players like Heatley,Koivu,Parise,Suter/Backstrom just get a year older. They are all quickly leaving the prime years of their career. Its now or never for those guys. We need a young stud like Granlund/Brodin to step up and take this team to the next level with an above expectations season. If we wait everyone just gets older. 
