Bob Boughner sounded Thursday like a proud pollster whose forecasts proved correct.
With election returns showing a 90 percent approval for ratification of the new NHL collective bargaining agreement, the Avalanche defenseman and NHLPA executive committee member could finally exhale after nearly a year of worry.
“It definitely makes me happy that the membership felt the way it did toward this agreement,” Boughner said while sitting on a plane prior to takeoff in Toronto. “Now, all we have to think about is training camp and playing hockey.”
Recent weeks have seen media accounts pummeling the NHLPA. The owners routed the players, conventional wisdom said. But Boughner said the deal is a lot better than what it would have been in February, when feverish last-minute talks were held.
“Back then, there were just one-page proposals being passed back and forth,” Boughner said. “This is a really thought-out deal. And the backbone of this deal was how the definition of revenues will be (accounted). That was huge.”
Boughner said breakthroughs came when players got owners to agree to set benchmarking standards for the accounting of hockey-related revenues.
“(Owners) are still going to do their own accounting, but they’re going to have to use the principles that we agreed upon,” Boughner said. “And then we, at the end, send in to an agreed-upon, independent auditor that will go in and be able to audit up to 20 teams a year.”
Boughner listed other gains for players in the deal:
A pension system that will triple the income for retired players.
A raise in the minimum salary from $180,000 to $450,000.
A lowering of the age for unrestricted free agency to 27 by the end of the six-year deal.
A retention of the arbitration system, which was not in the owners’ last-minute February deal.
“We didn’t want this being a league where there’s just (one guy) and everybody else at $200,000,” Boughner said. “We wanted to take care of everybody, so we brought the guys up to eventually a minimum salary of 500 grand and then a tripled pension, which is tax-free money, which equals probably another 100 grand. When you’re negotiating on 700 guys’ behalf, you can’t negotiate for the first guy or the 700th guy. You negotiate for the general membership.”
Boughner’s logic turned around teammate Steve Konowalchuk’s thinking. Konowalchuk, who lost $2.5 million in salary from last season and will make a rolled-back base salary of $1.9 million this season, initially was critical of the agreement.
“I think the security of players is still in place,” Konowalchuk said. “For example, the waiver rule is still in place, where they can’t just send you down to the minors on a two-way contract to save money on the cap. Players aren’t going to get bounced around all the time, like in football. I think that was a concern with the cap, like in football where you’re here today and gone tomorrow.”
Konowalchuk was concerned that upward of 15 percent of players’ paychecks was being set aside in escrow, which could be forfeited to owners if overall league revenues fall below the agreed-upon benchmark of $1.7 billion for this season.
On the other hand, it gives players more incentive to sell the league. If that happened, players would make money above their base salaries, as part of a 54 percent overall share of league revenue.
“Initially, I thought the benchmark was going to be on $2.2 billion, and of course it’s going to be less than that,” Konowalchuk said. “Now, both sides are taking a financial risk. Those were the kinds of things I didn’t understand earlier.”
Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-820-5454 or adater@denverpost.com.
