Thursday, October 13, 2005

Crumbs for the farm hands?

Minor League Hockey players across North America are not impressed, the new look NHL is having a rather major impact on the pocket books of the farm hands.

The Professional Hockey Players' Association, which has members playing in both the ECHL and the AHL claims that the current NHL collective agreement is having a severe trickle down effect on their members earning power.

Current members who make over 75,000 dollars, find that when they are called up to the parent NHL club they suddenly end up on waivers and into a wage ceiling of only 75,000 dollars. Effectively imposing a 75,000 dollar ceiling on all AHL salaries, bringing down the earning power of all league players.

The players association is studying the ramifications of the new era of financial prudence in the NHL, so far they don't like what they have discovered. If things don't seem to be negotiable then there's a very good chance they will sue the NHL.

As Bob Dylan once said "when you have nothing, you have nothing to lose"

It could be the song on the bus for the next few weeks as the Minor leaguers look for a bit of respect.

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