If the NHL players have no contract, what is to stop the League from just firing them all and hiring minor lea?

Question

The players are not playing in the NHL - FACT
The players all have contracts with their respective NHL teams to play - FACT
The players are not living up to their contracts - FACT

Why doesn't the NHL Commissioner pull a Ronald Reagan and just fire al of the players that are overpaid anyway (and this is the lowest paying sport of the big 4)? There are thousands of minor league players that would be willing to play for much less money (which should translate to lower ticket prices. If you don't believe that, look at the minor league ticket prices.)

This type of an action would also be a signal to the other three sports that for every athlete making $10+ million a year, there are 20 athletes that will play for $500K a year. The games might not be quite as good with the $500K athletes, but they will not be 20X worse.

Answer 1

Scab players. that's the answer. lower the prices. open the doors. drop the puck. Trust me the players will start coming back. And watch how fast they fire Fehr.

Answer 2

Fact check time!



Error One: the players have maintained since the beginning that they are willing to play under their current contracts. It is the owners who are not living up to their contracts.



Error Two: Te NHL is not the lowest paying league of the Big 4. The average NFL player makes about half a million a year less than the average NHL player.



Error Three: Ticket prices are set by supply and demand, not salaries. This is why the New Jersey Devils sell tickets for much lower than say the New York Rangers, despite having nearly the same player cost. Minor league tickets are cheaper because far fewer people want to watch minor league sports



Error Four: The games won't be 20X worse, but the gate receipts will be signifcantly worse and since player salary is currently only about 55% of expenses (and likely to be around 50% once this lockout ends), the game only has to be half as good to ruin the NHL's business practices.



Error Five: You essentially repeated error one. The players are asking to be paid what the owners agreed to pay them. They are being locked out for wanting their contracts honoured.



Error Six; Every NHL contract DOES have a North American no-compete clause.



Error Seven: The players in the AHL were assigned there by their teams. The ones playing in Europe are out of the range of American and Canadian contract law.



Error Eight: The players in Europe can play there because the IIHF has no hard international transfer rules. Why do they not have these rules? NHL lobbying as the league routinely poaches players from other countries.



Error Nine: The World Juniors are on, so there's plenty of hockey on TV right now.



Six paragraphs, nine errors. Grade: F. Please revise these discrepancies and resubmit.

Answer 3

For starts how are the players not living up to there contracts?



Second the NHL owners couldn't just fire all there players and hire new one at a cheaper price. The players have legal binding contracts and there are labour laws against that



Third even if the owners all hired new players the quality of the game would drop huge and the fans would stop watching. there's a reason why those players arnt in the NHL

Answer 4

Wow....I have seen some messed up logic but this is right up there. Clearly you need to educate yourself on labor law because not one thing you said is accurate or even marginally correct. The players would absolutely love it is the owners fired them right now....by law they would be required to pay out the FULL remaining wages due them individually and they become free to sign anywhere they wish, for more money since with no CBA in place the "money" owners can spend whatever they want on whoever the want!



You speak of a non compete clause....all players have a no compete in the standard contract language of every contract in every sport currently played in the U.S. (and Canada for the NHL, MLB & NBA). However right now what logic are you using to say they are currently competing against an NHL clause? There currently is NO NHL to compete against. If and when the NHL starts up again those players will be back, they have to because if not they are the ones in violation of their contracts and the NHL has an agreement with the IIHF that requires most leagues release players from their current deals with a successful conclusion to the lockout (the exception being the KHL but every single player signed an opt out that currently has an NHL deal or a reasonable shot at a job if they are currently a RFA or UFA.).



Laughing extremely hard at the comment about replacements for many reasons. In case you arent aware (it appears you probably arent) most of the players in the minors ALSO belong to the union and therefore are also locked out by owners.....silly things like the LAW mut be followed by owners. Did you follow the replacement player joke that was the NFL when they decided hiring replacements was a good idea? The games were embarrassingly bad and in spite of paying these scabs next to nothing the owners logic was it isnt the guy in the uniform that makes it the best level of play but rather the uniform itself therefore it WAS in fact thir idea of the "new" NFL. And ticket prices remained the SAME! Owners pocketed millions selling a bogus game and quickly learned fans werent buying it.....but they still refused to lower ticket prices. NHL owners have shown the same "logical" thought process so if you really think ticket prices would be lower the you are one of the smucks that believed Bettman last time when he promised lower ticket prices for fans when they achieved "cost certainty". Yea, that almost happened. So if you really think minor hockey is for you then great....buy your tickets and support minor hockey (I do, I enjoy it but I also recognize there is a major difference in the speed and skill of the game which is why it is cheaper).



So that leaves you with the option of beer league hockey if you want players wearing NHl sweaters and pretending to be "real" NHL players. So if you dont mind perhaps you can call a few NHL owners and let them know you met a guy on Yahoo answers who happens to play beer league hockey and would gladly slip on an NHL sweater for a mere $500K. Of course we will need other parts of our deal worked out (beer on the benches....if we drink Molsons then dammit Molsons needs to write us a check and free beer or we will pull the labels!). Of course you will surely get "cheaper" tickets (the higher you sit the lower the price!) and if you drink right along with us you probably wont even notice we arent as good as Crosby, Malkin, Datsyuk and the rest of them. And I am pretty sure you will see more scoring....our goalies seem to have a hard time seeing after the 1st period (I think it has something to do with the water bottles....I suspect it isnt beer in them.....looks more like Vodka to me).

Answer 5

How can the players honor the contacts when the owners are the ones locking them out. The owners are locking out the players cause the owners don't want to honor the contacts they gave out, not the other way around. If it was the other way around it will be called a strike, not a lockout. There is a big difference between the two.



Players signed the contacts the owners offered. Now the owners are upset because salaries got out of line. Well that on the owners and GM's. Not the players. They just signed on the dotted line.

Answer 6

The players aren't playing because the league has locked them out.

Under labour laws in all 50 states, 10 provinces and 3 territories it is illegal to terminate a workers employment while he/she is in a legal work stoppage.



The Air traffic controllers situation in the US was different. The controllers were ordered back to work by the government under a national safety concern. They refused so they were in an illegal work stoppage. They were fired. simple.



The NHLPA is in a process of dissolving their union. When that happens the players will be free agents and without contracts. No need to hire minor leaguers the regulars will do.

Answer 7

Decertification of the union, could make all contracts null and void and make all players free agents. Then, there s no need to bring in minor leaguers.

Answer 8

Decertification eventually takes care of things.

Answer 9

Hey stupid........the owners locked the players out you moron!