Crosby To Shun NHL?

One of the issues that the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association are hammering out right now as they work to resolve the issues that have already cost hockey fans an entire season is the question of salary limits for incoming players.  

Basically rookies coming into the league would be faced with a maximum salary limit. This would cap a player like Sidney Crosby, who has yet to sign with an NHL team or play in an NHL game, to make a designated flat salary until he qualifies for the ability to renegotiate after several years. 

There may be loopholes to avoid this issue which hinders the financial development of some of the bright, young stars such as Crosby. Following Major League Baseball’s lead and offering signing bonuses of up to 10 million dollars in some cases could be an effective way of handling incoming rookies who feel that they would be worth more then the league minimum. It now simply becomes a question of what will the NHL and the NHLPA agree to. 

In the meantime, Sidney Crosby may not want to wait and find out. He has been offered a 10 million dollar, multi-year deal to play for Lugano in Switzerland, and given the current state of the NHL, Crosby may want to hop on that train before it leaves the station, especially if the next offer may never come. 

Even though North American hockey fans would be crazy not to want to see Crosby in an NHL uniform, the facts are that a 10 million dollar, 3-year deal is a substantially better offer then the 850,000 dollars per season for three years that the NHL is believed to be proposing. 

The NHL has to wake up and realize that with the state of its game in tatters and disgrace, the only thing that is going to save hockey are the players. Players who bring with them the ability to raise the quality of play not controlled by the referees, bigger nets, or by taking away the center ice red line. The NHL needs positive images to market the return of the game around, and that is why they can’t afford to lose Sidney Crosby. Not now, not ever.