Despite rampant talk of expansion and recent discussions of the ability of the Las Vegas market to house an NHL franchise, NHLPA executive director, Donald Fehr, is preparing for the worst.
When the current CBA ends - in seven years, after the 2021-22 season - Fehr is concerned that owners will again lockout the players, marking the fourth time in the league's history that such an event has occurred (the players went on strike in 1992).
"If you put baseball to the side where there's no cap, I don't see anything yet which suggests any of the other three (North American) leagues are likely to break out of the phenomenon of a lockout every time, because a salary cap produces that phenomenon on the management side," Fehr told Adam Proteau of TheHockeyNews.com. "(Owners) think they've got nothing to lose: "Let's just go see what happens, and maybe we'll get a little bit more."
"A little bit more" - for those with money, it always seems to be, "a little bit more."
And for leagues where the owners - even though they have no hand in the actual on-ice product - determine where, when and how said product is produced and played, the players will always be forced to eventually succumb to the wants and needs of the men with money.
A lost season means nothing to a man worth hundreds of millions of dollars - it does to a player whose earning power lasts an average of 5.5 years.
Fehr, now 66 years old and in his fifth year with NHLPA, also spoke about the player's ability to seek the opinion of independent doctors as opposed to team doctors, an important issue in light of the recent mumps outbreak and concern over concussions.
"As it is now, players have a complete right to a second medical opinion, so they're not locked in exclusively to team doctors," Fehr said. "But I'm sure that (independent doctors is) an issue that will get attention as time goes on."
