New York Rangers hockey is ready to return as the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association have agreed in principle on a memorandum of understanding for a four-year extension of the NHL/NHLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement, through the 2025-26 season, and protocols for Phases 3 and 4 of the NHL Return to Play Plan with the intention of resuming games Aug. 1.
Tentative dates have been set for the NHL's restart:
— July 13: Start of training camp
— July 26: Teams travel to hub cities
— Aug. 1: Start of the qualifying round— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) July 6, 2020
The current CBA, ratified in January 2013, was scheduled to expire on September 15, 2022. With this extension, it would expire on September 15, 2026.
The NHL and NHLPA each declined its option to reopen this agreement in Sept. 2019, which would have triggered its expiration. The sides instead decided to continue discussions about an extension that began during the 2019 offseason. Negotiations continued after the NHL paused the 2019-20 season March 12 due to concerns surrounding coronavirus and have been a part of the process of determining the NHL Return to Play Plan, which was announced May 26 with 24 teams competing for the Stanley Cup.
NHLPA, NHL Reach Tentative Agreement on Return to Play Plan, CBA Extension; Set Dates for Resumption of Play https://t.co/QKnu4L2jWV pic.twitter.com/6ClJWYhQwH
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) July 6, 2020
Under the new deal, players will defer 10 percent of next season’s salary and see another 20 percent contributed to capped escrow. The upper limit of the salary cap will be held flat at $81.5-million.
Before training camps are able to open on July 13, ratification votes for the entire return-to-play package will be held by the NHL’s Board of Governors and the full NHLPA membership. A simple majority is needed among players while three-quarters of owners have to support the plan for it to move ahead.
Reaching this stage of the restart plan required a complex rethinking of the league’s economic system for the next couple of years. Even though the current CBA was due to run through September 2022, a negotiated extension was needed with the NHL set to lose more than a $1-billion for the 2019-20 season and even more than that in a 2020-21 campaign that will likely be played in buildings at less than full capacity because of COVID-related restrictions.