The Rangers have yet to fully release their camp roster while the Hurricanes tweeted theirs out today. A Zoom call with the NHL and NHLPA was held today to discuss the MOU/CBA.To date, seven players have opted out, including former Ranger, Steven Kampfer, but no one from the Blueshirts. The deadline for opting out of Phase 3/4 is Monday at 5pm.

First, a little pump up video by AJ Castiglia:

"Welcome Back Blueshirts" The Unfinished Story 🎥 Narrated By @VallysView 🔴⚪🔵 https://t.co/FUbMnXu0OB

— AJ Castiglia (@ajcastigliaa) July 12, 2020

Carolina's camp roster is below. Brett Pesce is not expected to be ready for the play-in-round, as he recovers from his shoulder injury. But Sami Vatanen, acquired at the trade deadline, should be in the lineup as his leg injury has healed. In addition, one more look at the schedule of games, though start times for each have yet to be announced.

The squad 👊 pic.twitter.com/qIgUBicwI7

— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) July 11, 2020

For those who are interested and have 54 minutes to spare, Commissioner Gary Bettman, Mathieu Schneider, Bill Daly and Don Fehr talked about the NHL's official return to play and new CBA on a Zoom call today. The MOU is 71 pages long, so this call is a good synopsis, but if interested, always good to read the MOU for the various little nuances and changes from the prior CBA.



Larry Brooks is in full Brooks style in his Slapshots column. First, he takes the NHLPA to task for agreeing to the small increases in the latter few years of the CBA. Then, he rightly rips the NHL for the new blackouts when it comes to injuries and players' health in Phases 3 and 4.

Slapshots. On the CBA, the peace it bought, the winners, the losers; Secrecy meets privacy and they want you to know nothing; Ruff and the Devils; Vinik's hotel.  https://t.co/TJ3C0DILAi via @nypostsports

— Larry Brooks (@NYP_Brooksie) July 11, 2020

CBA:

So this season, the cap stands at $81.5 million. In 2024-25, there is a chance it could increase to $84.5 million. That represents a 3.68 percent increase in average salary over six seasons. How much — allowing that the economy returns to health once the coronavirus is under control—do you think team valuations will rise over that period?

This generation has made it more difficult for the next. This generation has turned the union into a star-driven association. There was evidence of that with the split of the PA take of the 2016 World Cup further solidified by this deal that works to the advantage of marquee players with expensive long-term contracts and big-money players on their final contracts.

Hard to argue to a certain extent. The players rightfully recognized that for the next or two, revenues will not be back to their prior level. Beyond that, presuming a return to normalcy, hopefully, we see gains compared to where the league was. If that happens, the players will not share in that golden goose, due to the current agreement.

Labor peace was paramount. But the NHL will benefit from the Seattle franchise fee and future TV contracts, with little to none of it coming to the players. That's why I was expecting more of an uptick after year 2, which is when the cap rises $1 million, and especially after year 3 of the CBA. Ten percent of players' salaries will be held back next year to be paid over the life of the CBA, likely the latter half. One option might have been to try and roll that into a rise in the CBA by taking 3.33 per cent, one-third of 10 per cent, and compounding it annually into a rise in the cap. Yes, the players would get the better end of the deal, but since they are the ones giving up money now, there should have been a greater future benefit.

Injury information:

Bill Daly says the NHL will release test numbers and positive test numbers, but privacy will be protected and the teams are prohibited from giving out any information on the tests. Mathieu Schneider says the players are very sensitive to this and this was very important to them.

— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) July 11, 2020

So it’s not about privacy. It’s about not informing the public, which, by the way, has a right to know if this Stanley Cup tournament is being contested on legitimate grounds. The league is asking the public to trust its protocols and to trust that playing through a pandemic — with all due precautions — is responsible. They — the league and the union — just don’t trust you with information.

There is also the matter of gambling. The NHL has arrangements with three gambling-related concerns — MGM Resorts, William Hill and Fan Duel. You mean to tell me if the Leafs’ John Tavares, Mitch Marner and Morgan Rielly contract the coronavirus toward the end of camp and are ruled out of the qualifying round by physicians, the league wouldn’t tell anybody.

Major league baseball is allowing teams to reveal COVID information if the player acquiesces. Why is the NHL not following the same directive? I think we all hoped that with the legalization of gambling and "need" for accurate data, that injury reports would be a lot more precise, not just upper-body injury for a concussion and lower-body injury for a broken leg. As we have seen, this has not been the case. Now, with the need for contact tracing, the league once again has their head in the sand - regardless of the players' opinion - on injuries. Follow what MLB is doing and no one likely would raise a dissent, but that;s not how the NHL operates.

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