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Bettman responds to 2018 Olympic participation for CBA extension report

On Thursday, Oct. 6, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, talks to reporters outside of the West Wing of the White House, after the ceremony honoring the Pittsburgh Penguins for their 2016 Championship, in Washington, on October 6, 2016. (Photo by Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, talks to reporters outside of the West Wing of the White House, after the ceremony honoring the Pittsburgh Penguins for their 2016 Championship, in Washington, on October 6, 2016. (Photo by Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

PALM BEACH, Fla. – The NHL said that it did not use participation in the 2018 Olympics as a negotiation chip to extend the current collective bargaining agreement with the NHLPA.

Before taking questions from reporters after the first day of the league’s Board of Governors meeting, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman addressed this issue, saying the league never offered 2018 Olympic participation for an extension of the CBA, as had been previously reported.

In November when the NHL and NHLPA met as part of a meeting to go over Olympic participation, Bettman said he brought up the possibility of longer international schedule and how the CBA could impact future events. He noted that he didn’t want labor unrest to impact the 2020 World Cup so he made a suggestion to end the opt out that both the NHL and NHLPA hold in the current CBA in 2019 for 2020. If neither side uses this lever in 2019, the CBA will end in 2022. He also discussed a three-year extension to the current CBA.

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According to Bettman, this suggestion will enable the NHL to participate in multiple international events – such as the 2018 Olympics, 2020 World Cup, 2022 Olympics and previously reported Ryder Cup style events – without the possibility of labor unrest clouding their future.

“So if you look at the calendar and you play it out in the logical sequences of the way these events get played, we said, ‘if you look at the calendar and you get rid of the (CBA) reopeners and you extend by three years, that gets you two Olympics, two World Cups and two Ryder Cups, whatever form the Ryder Cup takes. Most importantly it tells the world and our fans there’s nine years of labor peace after this season, which we thought would be a good thing even if there were things we might want to change,” Bettman said. “I hadn’t discussed this with any of the owners, and so maybe this was something we should each talk about because if the Olympics weren’t just a one-off for Pyeongchang, maybe those owners who think going to the Olympics has had run its course, might think better in the context of something broader.”

After the report of the CBA extension for Olympic participation, the issue of escrow was brought up as something the players disliked in the current deal and a reason why they wouldn’t want it to be extended. Bettman voiced confusion on this as well.

“The other thing that’s interesting is that this whole thing then morphed into a discussion of the escrow which I’m a little mystified with because this system as it works depends on the escrow,” Bettman said. “The reason the (salary_ cap is set where it is and in fact player contracts are somewhat inflated beyond what the system calls for is because there’s an escrow to recapture that extra money.”

The league’s reported offer seemed to anger some players who quickly voiced their opinions.

“That’s not negotiating. It’s not,” Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic said when he was asked by CSN Bay Area about the offer. “As an athlete, it’s your right to go to the Olympics. I don’t know if (the report) is true. I hope it’s not. That’s not the way you negotiate things. But, if that is true, all of a sudden they don’t mind having a two-week break in the NHL for a three-year collective bargaining agreement.”

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The NHLPA reportedly shot down the proposal last week, though Bettman said nothing concrete was even on the table.

“When this whole thing started over talking about the World Cup in 2020 and it morphed into, ‘let’s look grander. How do we get a schedule that has World Cups and Ryder Cups and Olympics and a schedule that makes sense?’” Bettman said. “That’s how the discussion came out. It was purely a discussion.”

After the meeting Bettman said the league’s owners didn’t seem enthused about the prospect of going to the 2018 Games.

“There are a lot of owners, a lot of clubs, over the years that have been very concerned about what Olympic participation does to the season. What it does to players in terms of injuries. Not just those that go, but having a compressed schedule can make players more tired, more wear and tear on them, the potential for injury is greater,” Bettman said. “I think after doing five of these, I don’t know. I think ‘fatigue’ might be a word.”

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