Rozner: Labor peace a win for NHL fans

Baseball is closing in on a return to real games, something many have thought impossible over the last few months.

Of course, we're not there yet and it may not happen at all, but at least MLB is trying.

It is trying against the backdrop of angry labor negotiations that are going to get much worse in 2021. One might have thought that, amid a pandemic and so much suffering, the sides could have come together just for a short time.

Instead, you have an angry commissioner, angry owners, angry players and very angry agents behind the scenes stoking the fire.

It is going to get ugly when genuine CBA talks begin.

Contrast that with the NHL, which has had more labor misery and work stoppage than any other sport over the last 30 years. Often backward and appearing clueless, it was as if the NHL was intentionally trying to ruin the game.

But today, in a stunning twist, the owners and players have not only come together to try to finish the season and crown a Stanley Cup champion, but they have agreed to an extension of the collective-bargaining agreement through the 2025-26 season.

While baseball is headed for labor disaster, the NHL will have labor peace for another six years. And they managed to do this when it is impossible to know just how bad the revenue hit will be this year or next.

There are people around the game who believe they won't have full stadiums again until the fall of 2021.

Nevertheless, Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA boss Don Fehr came to an agreement, and they did it without publicly destroying the other side during negotiations. Bettman, in particular, deserves credit for understanding the moment. That has rarely been his strength.

"When we decided to take the (pandemic) pause, that began a period of perhaps unprecedented collaboration and problem solving," Bettman said on a conference call Saturday. "I wouldn't even say it approached a negotiation.

"It was a recognition by both sides that we were being confronted with an incredibly difficult situation, and then to get through it for the good of our constituents and good of the game and for the good of our fans, we needed to work together to solve the myriad problems that would be in front of us.

"It was about maintaining, stabilizing during this time, and focusing on the future of the game."

Labor peace is a big deal for a league that so often shoots itself in both feet.

"It indicates something about the approach that was taken in these talks," Fehr said. "We're living through difficult times, uncertain times. No one knows what the future will bring.

"What that meant was that this was not, and for all practical purposes could not be, normal collective bargaining. We explained to the players that there was little that was customary or usual or what would ordinarily have been expected in negotiations.

"We viewed the task as trying to identify the difficulties caused by the pandemic, certainly the immediate ones, but looking to the future to figure out a way to address those issues.

"We had to do that in a way everybody could agree with. Great ideas aren't worth very much if the other side doesn't go along with it. And then set the stage for the recovery when things begin to return to normal."

The players undoubtedly took a beating in this CBA, but then NHL players always do. The stars will do well, as they always have, but the cap could remain flat through the entire agreement, with very small raises in what teams can spend, so the best teams will have a difficult time keeping their rosters together.

This has always been Bettman's dream, extreme parity that allows bad teams to improve quickly and expansion teams to compete immediately.

"This is probably not something that a lot of people are going to call a perfect agreement," Fehr said in grand understatement. "A lot of people are going to find faults with one thing or another. That's always the case.

"And I'm pretty sure there's going to be unanticipated events and perhaps even unintended consequences, but I do think this agreement meets the challenge. The next challenge is going to be to implement it both in the short term and in the long term."

The salary-cap nightmare that teams will be facing is a subject for another day. For now, the NHL has a plan in place to return to action at the end of this month - though far from a certainty - and they have ensured labor peace for a very long time.

It is rare to say this when it comes to the NHL, but hockey fans are winners for a change.