what was the lockout and why might it happen again?
A lockout happens every now and then and, especially under Gary Bettman, is expected to keep happening.
Essentially, a lockout is when the two governing bodies of the NHL cannot agree on the CBA. The CBA is a document that basically governs the NHL, it stands for Collective Bargaining Agreement, and lays out how profits from the league are dispersed between both sides, what benefits players get, what their rights are, how contracts are structured, Roster size, cap space, waivers, essentially everything that goes into running the NHL. For example before the last lock out in 2013, all players had a roommate on road trips and now only players on their ELC will have a roommate on road trips.
Now the two governing bodies of the NHL are the Owners, represented by Gary Bettman, and the Players, represented by the Players Association (NHLPA). Obviously Bettman is interested in getting the best deal for his clients, the Owners, while the PA is interested in getting the best deal for the players. This is the part where I think people get confused with the commissioners role. Bettman is a lawyer and he is hired by the Owners of NHL teams, who are essentially the owners of the NHL. If you consider the NHL like any other business, it has 31 separate pieces that need to be bought to be owned. But you cannot have 31 people trying to make a decision, when half of them don’t even like each other. So Bettman’s job is that he is essentially the Teams Owners lawyer and he represents what they believe and want. Very rarely does he have the ability himself to make any decision based on personal beliefs, he’s mostly just a talking head for the owners.
Now the NHL has a history, especially under Bettman, of being very... stubborn and so lockout have happened quite a bit under him. There was the total lockout in 2005, and the partial lockout in 2013. and so the reason another one may happen is in September of 2020, there is a opt out in this current CBA, and if either side takes it and another CBA is not introduced before the season starts, then a lockout happens. There is no “this will definitely happen” or “this will definitely not happen,” because we just don’t know. Everyone in a decision making position has said they don’t expect a lockout but a lockout isn’t something you go in with the mindset of getting, so there’s no way to know if that promise means anything.
I think the biggest problem with the current CBA is that the players agreed to it in a rush, meaning that for whatever reason they feel that the CBA is not equal going forward. Essentially the players, because they didn’t want a total work stoppage, agreed to what they had but mdae the league put in the opt out for 2020. This to me says, that the league knows they got away with something and that the players are going to insist on getting more this upcoming CBA. and like I said, the NHL is very stubborn so how likely they are to get that is sort of up in the air.
So be ready I guess,
