Posted on 02/18/2005 11:35:24 AM PST by Alberta's Child
A brief timeline of the modern National Hockey League. I posted some of these items on a long thread the other day, and I though I'd take the time to build on it some more . . .
1. In 1967, the NHL expands from the "Original Six" teams (which is really a misnomer because the league varied from 4 to 10 teams throughout the first 25 years of its existence from the 1917-18 to the 1942-43 seasons). The Original Six play in their own division, while the new expansion teams -- which include the California Seals, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and the St. Louis Blues -- are assigned to their own division. It will be several years before these expansion teams are truly competitive . . . the Stanley Cup is won by Original Six teams in 4-0 sweeps in the Finals every year from 1967-68 to 1969-70.
The 1967 expansion also marks the beginning of the National Hockey League Players' Association. Alan Eagleson is named the executive director of the NHLPA, a role he would fill for almost 25 years.
2. The Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks join the league for the 1970-71 season, and the divisions and playoff format are modified. The Original Six teams continue to dominate the league through the 1972-73 season.
3. The Atlanta Flames and the New York Islanders are added between 1972 and 1974. The Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals join in 1974-75, bringing the league to a total of 18 teams.
The World Hockey Association begins play in 1972, and becomes a credible competitor to the NHL when Chicago Blackhawks star Bobby Hull is signed to a $1 million WHA contract and NHL legend Gordie Howe comes out of retirement to join the league.
4. In 1973-74 the Philadelphia Flyers become the first team from the post-1967 expansion era to win the Stanley Cup. They win a second consecutive Cup in 1974-75 over the Buffalo Sabres -- the first time two post-1967 expansion teams meet in the Finals.
5. The first obvious signs of economic strain in the NHL appear in 1976-77, when the California Seals move to Cleveland and become the Barons and the Kansas City Scouts move to Colorado and become the Rockies. The Barons only last two years in Cleveland before they merge with the Minnesota North Stars.
1977 also marks the year John Ziegler is named commissioner of the National Hockey league, replacing NHL icon Clarence Campbell -- who had served in that position since 1946.
6. The World Hockey Association folds in 1979 under a mutual agreement with the National Hockey League, in which four WHA teams (Quebec Nordiques, Hartford Whalers, Winnipeg Jets, and Edmonton Oilers) are permitted to join the NHL.
The Edmonton Oilers become one of the top teams in the NHL almost immediately. Their best player is the legendary Wayne Gretzky, whose relationship with the team is based on a contract with Oilers owner Peter Pocklington that dated back to Pocklington's ownership of the Indianapolis Racers of the WHA (more on this later). The WHA was able to get first crack at the 17 year-old superstar from Brantford, Ontario because NHL rules prohibited teams from drafting junior players until they turned 18.
7. In 1980-81 the Flames move from Atlanta to Calgary, becoming the fourth team in western Canada. The Colorado Rockies move to the new arena in the New Jersey Meadowlands in 1982-83 and become the New Jersey Devils. The 21-team configuration is the most stable in recent decades, lasting from this point until the addition of the San Jose Sharks in 1991-92.
During this period, the league's conferences and divisions are named after legendary figures from the game's storied history in North America. The Prince of Wales Conference (the eastern teams) includes the Patrick and Adams Divisions, while the Clarence Campbell Conference (the western teams) includes the Norris and Smythe Divisions.
8. The 1983-84 season ends in some controversy, as the Pittsburgh Penguins are accused of of deliberately losing games late in the season to secure the #1 selection in the 1984 draft. A young phenom named Mario Lemieux was in the process of tallying 133 goals and 282 points while playing for Laval of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League that year. Lemieux is drafted by the Penguins in 1984 and immediately makes his mark as "the next Wayne Gretzky."
9. The 1987-88 Stanley Cup playoffs descend into chaos when New Jersey Devils coach Jim Schoenfeld is suspended by the NHL for an incident in which he (allegedly) tells a referee Don Koharski to "go have another donut, you fat pig!" after Koharski ejected him from a playoff game between the Devils and the Boston Bruins. The Devils get an injuction against the suspension in Federal court, and Schoenfeld coaches the next game. The NHL referees walk out in protest, and the game is officiated by college and high school officials called in at the last minute. Through it all, John Ziegler -- the commissioner of the NHL -- cannot be reached while he is on vacation in Europe . . . DURING THE STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS.
10. In the late 1980s, Pocklington decides to sell off part of the Edmonton Oilers through a sale that would make them a publicly-traded company (similar to a move the Boston Celtics had attempted around that time). His biggest problem is Wayne Gretzky . . . even though Gretzky is playing under a unheard-of 21-year contract, this contract is not with the Edmonton Oilers -- it's a personal-services contract with Peter Pocklington. To get Gretzky on the Oilers' balance sheet, Pocklington must tear up his old contract and sign Gretzky to a new one with the Oilers. But Gretzky indicates that he may only play another 2-3 years, so Pocklilngton is effectively forced to trade him to the Los Angeles Kings for an enormous pile of cash just to prop up the team's balance sheet in advance of the IPO.
11. Bruce McNall, the owner of the Kings, immediately becomes a celebrity among NHL owners and one of the most famous team owners in all of sports as a result of this trade. He is appointed the head of the NHL Board of Governors, and is later instrumental in hiring Gary Bettman as commissioner in 1993.
The hiring of Bettman is questioned by many long-time hockey fans, since he is a New York lawyer who spent the previous 12 years as a senior executive of the NBA. Well-founded stories persist to this day that Bettman had never even watched a hockey game until he was hired by the NHL. He is tasked by the NHL with growing the league into a "big-time" sport in North America, and one of his first orders of business as commissioner is to discard the traditional conference and division names and replace them with bland geographic names similar to every other major sport.
12. The establishment of the San Jose franchise is another key milestone of economic instability in the post-1967 era, for this marks the first time the league "re-expands" into a market that it had abandoned fairly recently (when the Seals left for Cleveland).
13. The "Wayne Gretzky era" reaches its peak in 1992-93 when the Kings advance to the Stanley Cup Finals with a stirring victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Campbell Conference finals. But a relatively obscure Montreal Canadiens team ends the Kings' playoff run in the Finals and wins the legendary franchise's 24th Stanley Cup. As of 2005, the 1992-93 Canadiens are the last team from Canada to win the Cup.
14. Alan Eagleson, the head of the NHL Players' Association from 1967-1991, is indicted for fraud and embezzlement in 1994 for his dealings with the NHLPA and is later convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prision.
15. In what will probably be remembered as the start of the NHL’s current misfortune, the New York Rangers win the Stanley Cup in 1994 -- their first Cup victory in 54 years. The popularity of the NHL seems to be at its height, due to the extensive media exposure and great story lines in the playoffs. The Rangers win the Finals in seven games against Vancouver, after beating their cross-river rivals in New Jersey in a seven-game Eastern Conference Finals that is still remembered by many as the greatest NHL playoff series of all time.
With the Stanley Cup in New York and former NBA executive Gary Bettman at the helm as commissioner, the NHL seems poised to take its place among the other major North American professional sports leagues. Nobody would have known it at the time, but big-time NBA-like status would come with a serious downside for many hockey fans -- it will be ten years before another team from Canada appears in the Stanley Cup Finals.
16. The 1993-94 season also marks the first of many franchise moves that seem to be completely at odds with the notion of hockey as a winter sport. Only a few years after they made the Stanley Cup Finals, the Minnesota North Stars are sold to an owner who promptly moves the team to Dallas. Over the next few years the Hartford Whalers will move to North Carolina, the Winnipeg Jets move to Phoenix, and the Quebec Nordiques move to Denver. By this time, Edmonton is the only WHA franchise left in its original city.
All of these moves are based on the misguided notion that hockey is a big-time television sport, and these teams are worth more money in southern U.S. cities with large potential television audiences than in northern U.S. and Canadian cities with great fan support but small television markets. In a twist of irony, the NHL effectively determines that a city with 500 hockey fans among 3 million people is a stronger market than a city with 200,000 hockey fans among 500,000 people.
17. The 1994-95 season is delayed by a lockout when the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement expires, and is shortened to 48 games. The Stanley Cup stays in the New York City area as the New Jersey Devils win their first championship after an improbable run through the playoffs as the #5 team in the Eastern Conference.
In a bizarre turn of events, the playoffs are marked by a series of media stories about an ongoing dispute between the Devils and the owner of the Continental Airlines Arena, the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority. In the midst of the playoffs, rumors whirl about a potential lawsuit against the NJSEA for breach of contract, under which the team -- which would go on to win the Stanley Cup, mind you -- would immediately vacate the arena and move to Nashville. During the course of the dispute Gary Bettman makes a number of public comments in support of the team’s potential move. He is interviewed on the Fox network at the Continental Airlines Arena between periods in the last game of the Finals, and must shout his responses to the Fox announcers to be heard over the cries of "Bettman sucks!" emanating from the crowd in the arena behind him.
18. The Devils settle their dispute with the arena landlord and go on to become one of the most successful franchises in the NHL over the next decade, winning the Stanley Cup in 1999-2000 and 2002-03 and losing in the Finals in 2000-01. But their on-ice success is tarnished by an abysmal off-ice performance that is symbolic of the "big-time" NHL. Despite winning three Stanley Cups in nine years, the team can’t even sell out many of its playoff games in that period.
19. Los Angeles Kings owner and former conquering hero Bruce McNall is indicted and convicted on multiple counts of bank fraud in 1996, and is forced to sell off many of the Kings' assets. It turns out that his financial empire was all smoke and mirrors, and he effectively had a net worth of ZERO while he owned the team.
Over the next few years in the 1990s, the NHL goes through a series of embarrassing episodes with the New York Islanders in which successive prospective owners come forward to buy the team, only to have their financial plans fall apart under close inspection by the league (a close inspection that the NHL implemented only in the aftermath of the McNall debacle). In at least one of the cases, the buyer's plan is predicated on utterly fraudulent financial arrangements.
20. Mario Lemieux retires in 1997 after a career marred by injuries and a battle with Hodgkins Disease. The Hockey Hall of Fame grants a special waiver of its normal three-year requirement for retired players before they are eligible for induction, and Lemieux is immediately elected to the Hall.
21. The Pittsburgh Penguins teeter on the brink of financial collapse on a number of occasions in the late 1990s. Mario Lemieux is forced to take a partial ownership of the team in lieu of his deferred payments on his original contract with the team. He really has no choice in the matter -- if the team were to go bankrupt, his "guaranteed" contract would be worthless.
In 2000, Lemieux -- who is already a fixture in the Hockey Hall of Fame -- returns to the ice in a desperate attempt to boost sagging attendance for the Penguins and restore some value to the franchise. When the NHL players are locked out by the owners in 2004-05, Lemieux finds himself in the peculiar position of being on both sides of the labor dispute.
22. The addition of the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Bluejackets franchises for the 2000-01 season bring the league to its current total of 30 teams.
But that's what MADE this situation in the first place. The problem with the salary structure is the top guys, they're the balloon that lifts the whole structure. There is no way to lower the wages of the middle guys and NOT lower the wages of the top guys, the entire salary structure is BUILT around the TOP guys.
People pay to see their team win. And hockey is the ultiumate team sport, you don't just win because of the top guys, if they ensured victory the Rangers would have won 6 straight Cups in recent. You need solid 3rd lines and roleplayers to win.
There's no way your second line guys are going to be happy playing for 1/8 of what the top dogs make. Your 4th liners will be OK with it sure, and that's what they already make. Your 3rd liners will be OK with 1/4 of what the top dogs make, which is again what they already make. But your 2nd line guys will want at least half. THe ONLY way to drop down the pay of those 8-12 guys you see the problem with is to drop the pay of the marquee players. Any other system will get sent to arbitration and be over turned in minutes.
I have to disagree about Draper. The Grind Line is EXTREMELY popular in the Detroit area, and sells the jerseys to prove it.
Nationwide, Draper isn't a big draw, but locally he is, similar to the enforcers of the 80's.
"Rambling thoughts on hockey" ping. LOL.
I always had the same routine (I went to games by myself). I'd walk in as soon as the gates opened and would get a slice of pizza and a Coke. Then I'd go to the game room and spend a few quarters to bang away at those pinball machine or maybe even one of those "newfangled" video games like Space Invaders or Galaxian.
Then I'd buy a program and make my way to my seat for the actual game.
It is true that unless you see a game in person, you will never truly appreciate what a great sport ice hockey is. If your only experience with pro hockey is watching it on TV, you just have no idea at all. That is the true bane of hockey. On TV, it sucks.
I stopped going in the 1980s because it just got so damn expensive.
Yeah, but a team full of Kris Drapers is nothing without a Shanahan, an Yzerman and a Federov, is it?
Individual players may be popular with the fans, (I happen to be a huge Rod Brind'Amour fan, btw) certainly, but popularity doesn't bring home Stanley Cups. Big-time players do. And big-time players need to be paid big time salaries, and the only way to do that is to short the rest of the guys on the team. Otherwise ticket prices rise to Knick or Laker-like prices and no one shows up at Joe Louis.
The "give" in this situation can't come from the "low-end", it can only come from the middle. The very guys who are overpaid, incidentally.
This gets more surreal almost by the hour.
LOL! Yeah... what's the NHL?
I'm not sure if it even makes sense to get a season going at this point. The 28-game season being talked about earlier this week would at this point be a 24-game season.
But no doubt the players are coming to the realization that making less money is a lot better than making no money at all.
The story floating around here in New York is that it was the owners who initiated this effort. I think there's a lot of concern on their part about just how bad things are going to be for the league if ESPN exercises their April 15th option to terminate their NHL broadcast agreement.
Then close the damn thing. The solution isn't to replace it with a $250 million white elephant in Newark.
OUTSTANDING post!!
I have been a hockey fan for decades, and even played for a few years (a nice adult league) back in the '80s. I remember going to see the Flyers play the Blues back in 1967 - - attendance was so small that my brother and I were able to scoot around and find a few loose pucks under the seats in the upper part of the lower section at the Spectrum. Back then, if you brought your skates with you, you were allowed to go out on the ice after the game and skate around for a while. Lots of people did this.
That would be great. I predicted they wouldn't meet again until July. I'd love to be wrong.
From Hockey News via ESPN: Season could be Uncanceled Saturday
There might be an NHL season, after all.
The NHL and the players' association will meet in New York on Saturday after the league requested the sides get together again. The Hockey News reported Friday night that the sides had already agreed in principle to a deal that includes a $45 million salary cap and could un-cancel the season Saturday.
Asked if there was any way a deal won't get done, a player close to the talks who asked to remain anonymous told The Hockey News, "Not that I can see. I couldn't possibly imagine the idea that somebody is going to try to make a name for themselves in the last minute here."
Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux are still believed to be major players in the process. Both are reported to be in New York taking part in the talks.
"I believe all (that) stuff is pretty accurate," said the player close to the talks.
A second source confirmed to The Hockey News that Lemieux traveled to New York on Friday.
On Wednesday, commissioner Gary Bettman canceled the season, saying it was too late to play any semblance of a schedule. The cancellation made the NHL the first major North American sports league to lose a full season to a labor dispute.
Or did it?
In a statement released Friday night, the players' association said the NHL made the offer late Thursday night to get back together. NHL spokesman Frank Brown told ESPN that the league had no comment on the reports.
There was no immediate word on who would take part in the meeting, although Canada's TSN reported earlier Friday that NHL vice president Bill Daly and NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin -- who ESPN The Magazine's E.J. Hradek reported was traveling to New York on Friday night -- will be in attendance. TSN said Bettman and Goodenow may not be directly involved in the meeting.
One general manager told The Hockey News that Bettman used the cancellation to force NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow's hand -- i.e., if Goodenow thought he could maintain his reputation of being a successful deadline hunter, he was wrong.
"I think the timing has always been to get an agreement so that we can play," said New Jersey Devils president Lou Lamoriello, who has taken part in previous negotiations. "Right now, it's still get an agreement, and then if we get an agreement, then can we play?
"I think it's a little different than it was before," he said.
Hradek reported that even if an agreement is reached, there is no guarantee a season will be played this year.
"The way everything has transpired, nothing surprises me," said Lamoriello, who declined to say whether he would be in attendance.
Daly was involved in a closed-door meeting Friday evening and declined to comment.
There hadn't been any official contact between the NHL and the players' association since Tuesday night -- when the sides traded what they said were final offers.
All proposals were rejected, and Bettman went ahead and canceled the season Wednesday at a news conference that was scheduled two days earlier.
"I don't think anything was premature. It was a necessity," Lamoriello said. "It didn't appear to be going anywhere and there was too much jockeying going on.
"Right now, there's a chance of people getting down to possibly getting this done," he said.
Bettman said in a letter to Goodenow on Tuesday that the league's salary cap proposal of $42.5 million was as far as he could go and that there was no time or flexibility for negotiation.
Goodenow sent a letter back, proposing a soft cap at $49 million that could be exceeded by as much as 10 percent by teams twice during the course of the six-year deal.
It appeared there was momentum toward reaching a deal and that the season had a chance to be saved, since the sides were only $6.5 million apart on their cap numbers. But talking ceased after each side sent two letters to the other on Tuesday night.
There were big breakthroughs Monday in Niagara Falls, N.Y., when the NHL agreed to drop its demand that player costs be linked to league revenues and the union, in turn, came off its steadfast opposition to a salary cap.
"We got through the philosophical end of it, so there's a better chance, but I think there is still a lot of work that has to be done and it still takes some time," Lamoriello said.
Bettman said the NHL couldn't afford the union's final proposal and said if all 30 teams spent $49 million on player costs, then more money would be paid out to players than last season.
Rumors began to swirl on Thursday, once the realization set in that the season had indeed been canceled.
"A lot of players, owners, managers saw how close the two negotiating teams got to a deal and I think people are just exploring if that can be explored any more," agent Pat Morris said Friday. "I don't know if it'll have a successful conclusion."
Bettman has said that teams lost more than $1.8 billion over 10 years -- the last time a collective bargaining agreement was reached. The previous lockout cut the 1994-95 season down to 48 games per team.
NHL clubs claim to have lost $273 million in 2002-03 and $224 million last season.
Bettman said that a deal would have to be in the drafting stages by the end of last weekend if there was going to be time to play a 28-game season and a standard 16-team postseason.
This is a great post by resident Canadian Freeper & Hockey Afficianado Alberta's Child. My apologies for getting this out to the list so late, was away from the computer for most of the day.
Regards,
H-T Freep mail or ping me if you want on or off the Hockey Ping List.
If the Hockey News is a source - it's legit.
I think the intensive involvement of Devils' GM Lou Lamoriello in these talks can be construed a number of different ways -- he's the best GM in sports and is respected by owners and players alike, but I also wonder if the New Jersey franchise is teetering on the brink of insolvency in this whole mess. There is already a move in the New Jersey state government to shut down all plans for that new arena in Newark as long as the NHL is not playing.
THe way I see it
A - it's in New York so Lou is near
B - everybody likes and trusts Lou
C - Lou's well known for not overpaying, or underpaying, if there's one guy that can say "it takes this much money to put a good team on the ice" and make it stick it's Lou
D - inspite of their on ice success the Devils are in grave financial trouble, which really drive home the problems
Sports Center is on in 16 minutes. We'll see.
Thanks so much, HT. I pinged you to an earlier post from someone named musical_airman who wanted to be added.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.