The CHL Development Agreement With The NHL #top .wrapper .container .whitebox h1 { color: #000; } #top .wrapper .container .whitebox p { color: #000; } #top .wrapper .container .whitebox div { color: #000; } The junior hockey news
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The CHL Development Agreement With The NHL December 10, 2012 7:51 AM
Hockey is big business. Major Junior Hockey is very big business and the NHL helps fund it.
TJHN has reported in the past the the NHL agreement with the CHL for player development had expired in the summer of 2012. That would make complete sense considering the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement expired in September. We all know how that business is operating at this point.
What we didnt know was that the funding provided to the CHL from the NHL through their agreement was extended secretly, or at best without being announced.
TJHN has published the document here: CHL – NHL Agreement Fully Executed
The agreement calls for the CHL to be paid up to nearly TEN MILLION DOLLARS this season. It also spells out the terms in which players could be signed to NHL agreements if the lockout were to end.
Of particular importance in this document is the date in which it is executed. SEPTEMBER 10th, 2012. Five full days before the expiration of the previous NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The date clearly shows that the NHL was preparing for a lockout prior to the expiration of the prior CBA. This agreement shows they had a plan for when it would end, if it should end in the 2012-2013 season.
So where does this money go? How is it spent on the players?
More importantly why would the NHL and CHL do this with no announcement?
Understanding every business has its secrets and certain tools they use to promote their business and fund their business, most would agree that keeping those secrets is required for some to survive.
Unfortunately though the CHL touts itself as the most direct path to the NHL and routinely brags about all the players that have made it based on its relationship with the NHL. Why then would the CHL not publicize this great extension and funding package? Why would the NHL not make a release on the package?
Could it be that some of this funding is diretly linked to player stipends?
According to a CHLPA representative it is:
"The NHL-CHL Agreement for $10 Million is an agreement which prevents players from going anywhere other than CHL if they are not playing in the NHL. Once a CHL player that has played in the NHL is sent back down, he can’t play in the AHL as he should if trade were not being restricted by colusion. If they play as a professional, then the player is a professional. CHL bylaws state they are and considers itself amateur, therefor the CHL shouldn’t allow these players to mix in with the league once they have played in the NHL. This practice only contaminates the league and the players in it. The $10 million ensures that the players are restricted from playing anywhere else other than CHL for $50 a week stipends. These are clear antitrust violations as they restrict trade and commerce."
If lines can be drawn that directly connect the player stipend to the NHL money paid to the CHL, both leagues may have a whole new set of issues to deal with.
No matter what the case, there is still the question; why was this agreement kept secret? I guess we are all left to form our own answers to that question.
By Joseph Kolodziej
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