While MLB and the MLB Players Association spent the last few months bickering, the NHL and its Players Association used the last few weeks to hammer out a new CBA.
On Monday, the two sides announced that they had agreed to a memorandum of understanding for a new four-year extension of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
If ratified this week, the CBA would run through the 2025-26 NHL season, and expire Sept. 15, 2026.
The NHL and NHLPA also were able to iron out details for the season restart, but because the Sharks aren’t heading to one of the two hub cities, that part doesn’t really affect them.
TSN’s Frank Seravalli reported Sunday that part of the new CBA stipulated that the 2020-21 salary cap would be frozen at $81.5 million, and wouldn’t rise until the league reached $4.8 billion in hockey-related revenue.
The Sharks have a lot of free-agent decisions to make this offseason, so a salary-cap freeze doesn’t help them.
According to CapFriendly.com, the Sharks will enter the offseason with $14,881,667 in cap space. But with Joe Thornton, Melker Karlsson, Stefan Noesen, Aaron Dell and three other players hitting unrestricted free agency, San Jose might not be able to bring all of them back.
Additionally, Kevin Labanc headlines the Sharks’ four restricted free agents. General manager Doug Wilson is going to have a tough time re-signing everyone.
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If you’re keeping track, that’s 11 unrestricted or restricted free agents with just under $15 million in cap space to sign them. A few players probably aren’t returning next season.
While the Sharks have their work cut out for them this offseason, the league and the Players Association took care of business well ahead of time.
NHL, NHLPA agree to four-year CBA extension through 2025-26 season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
