While there is not a lot of NHL news these days I figured I’d break down some of the most recent noteworthy stuff and give my usual quick thoughts on things as I see them.
Coyotes and The City of Glendale put off the inevitable for the next 2 years
After a month of he said, she said the Coyotes and the City of Glendale resolved their differences with out a long legal battle and an unreasonable amount of time to unload the team to a different arena or market all together. Below are some of the fine points of the new agreement.
– The new deal is for 2 years, the previous deal had a total term of 15 years.
– There is no “out clause” for the remainder of the lease. The previous deal had an out clause that would allow the team to break the lease if the team lost $50 M dollars (They had already lost over $30 M according to their numbers thus far.)
– The Coyotes will pay $500 K in annual rent.
– The City will pay the Coyotes $6.5 M a year to manage the arena down from a frankly outrageous $15 M dollars that was basically a subsidy. The city also reserves the right to have another company aside from the team manage the arena in 2016. If the Coyotes do not manage the arena they will gain no income from non-hockey related events.
– The Coyotes will now receive all hockey related revenue from parking, concessions, ticket surcharges etc… previously the city was receiving a cut of most of the revenue streams.
– The Coyotes can no longer employ Craig Tindall or Julie Frisoni.
– This settlement also settles all the outstanding issues between the Coyotes and the City of Glendale including those beyond the scope of the current agreement.
– The agreement ends on June 30th 2017 and has no renewal frame work built in. While this does not mean that both sides could not come to a new agreement it would have to be negotiated from scratch.
Ian’s Thoughts: I don’t think there are any real winners here. The City of Glendale gets to save a little face and money by having the basis of their original reason for nullifying the previous lease agreement addressed and the Coyotes are given a grace period to find a new home depending on if that is in the Phoenix area or not. It basically turned what could have been a messy divorce into a amicable separation. I fell that it is very likely that the Coyotes will play in the Phoenix area in 2018 because the NHL really values the TV market there. I have no doubt however that the team will not be in Glendale. Glendale will serve as a cautionary tale of the dangers of building am a arena for a team with mostly public money and something the residents of Glendale will feel the burden of for many years to come.
Quebec City could play in the Western Conference?
Many outlets are reporting that Gary Bettman has stated that an expansion team in Quebec City could find it self playing in the Central Division of the Western Conference.
Ian’s Thoughts: While I personally don’t like the idea of the team that would be the furthest east geographically being in the Western Conference I aknolwdge the problems that keeping the conferences differential of teams at 2 (lets face it Vegas is in) is not ideal. The other potential solutions are also not palatable. Moving Detroit back to the west would never make it through the board of governors not only because they were good soldiers as long as they were but also because there are powerful teams on the BOG from the east that will not want to lose the ticket revenues that the Red Wings bring to town. Columbus back to the west would also be a possibility however while it would be an easy fix it also puts the Blue Jackets in serious trouble that might just add a headache to the NHL instead of removing one. Finally there is precedent for this kind of move, The Columbus Blue Jackets despite being further east than the Red Wings joined the league in the Western Conference even though it was a less than ideal arrangement. The Winnipeg Jets who are anything but southeast played in the Southeastern division of the NHL upon moving to Winnipeg. One has to imagine that the NHL who showed obvious signs of disappointment with the lack of an Expansion bid from Seattle will do what they can to get a team there or maybe in Portland which would allow the new Quebec team to move to the Eastern Conference frankly where they belong. Cautionary tale though… the Red Wings got promised the move to the east back in the 90’s and to over a decade to come to fruition. Final option would be don’t expand to Quebec at all right now but I feel like the NHL wants their expansion dollars. Enjoy those extra air miles teams of the west.
Holtby, Stepan avoid arbitration with new deals.
Two of the most interesting arbitration cases of the summer were either avoided or settled before the actual ruling could be made as Capitols Braden Holtby and Derek Stepan of the New York Rangers.
Braden Holtby and the Washington Capitols actually went to their hearing but settled on a 5 year contract with an AAV of $6.1 M before a ruling from the case could be made. I honestly expected him to get about $6.5 M at the most so this is probably a good signing for the Capitals even if it may cost them RFA Marcus Johansson in a cap crunch.
Derek Stepan avoided arbitration as he came to a 6 year deal with the New York Rangers with an AAV of $6.5 M. Based on the deals that O’Reilly and Saad got Stepan probably could have gotten an extra $500 K in arbitration but the Rangers are fortunate to have this guy locked up going forward.
New arena for the Senators?
According to Complete Hockey News there are rumours that the Senators have the inside track on land where they would be able to build a new arena in downtown Ottawa that would allow them to relocate from Kanata which although is a nice building is a frustrating location to get to based on Travel and parking. This is also inline with the NHL wanting their teams to be featured in downtown metro arenas. This is in the early stages but I’ll keep you up to date the best I can.
