A Player's Perspective on the NHL Labor Contract Negotiations

We hear many different views on the potential for a lockout next season. I found one NHL player's anonymous blog and his perspective on the contract negotiations quite interesting.

The Player/Puckdaddy blog

The easiest complaint for hockey fans is that professional athletes are pampered, entitled, spoiled and overpaid. This is an often-used and tired complaint. If you were in the top 1% of all the professionals in your field and you were paid accordingly you would take it. The market determines what players are paid. If fans stop buying tickets and merchandise then the market would shift downward eventually.

Furthermore, to assume that players do not work hard enough for the money they make is inaccurate. Sure, some guys take the money and slide through, but the players I know or have seen working out are giving an honest effort. In an 82-game schedule there will be nights when teams do not have jump or intensity. Do you go to the office with the same intensity and "jump" every day? Yes, they are professionals and they are paid handsomely but they are also human, just like you.

With the specter of another NHL lockout looming please try to argue something other than the players are overpaid. For the risks they take with their health, the travel and training schedule they go through, and the level of expectations that are placed upon them by the public I would expect to be paid very well.

When TV Analysis Affects Contract Talks: Semin a "Coach-Killer"?

Is Alex Semin a coach-killer? Pierre McGuire says he is and said it on TSN's Free Agent Frenzy telecast on July 1.

Watch it here thanks to Kukla's Korner

Semin's agent, Mark Gandler, was not happy because he feels it will effect his client's talks with potential teams. I can see Gandler's frustration, McGuire's comments could cost him and his client money. But, that is if you think that general managers listen to these telecasts and use the information discussed on them as data in making their decisions. That could be a stretch. I would imagine general managers interested in Semin have already done their own research talking to whomever they can. They likely have formed their own opinions.