All quiet on the labor front: Friday's notes

We had a genuine exchange of volleys this week in the NHL CBA talks. The NHLPA made their initial proposal (finally, and with celebration by the hockey media) and the owners pretty much blew it off, so now both sides are taking a few days to sort through the issues and plot their next move. Part of the reason Shea Weber won't be at Monday's Town Hall is that Donald Fehr is meeting with several players up in Kelowna, B.C. early next week before negotiations resume a few days later.

Your morning hockey notes include a number of articles looking at what might happen in the event of a lockout, not just with regard to NHL players, but what it might mean for the development of the game at the youth level in the U.S....

Best of Nashville 2012 - The Nashville Scene
This year they have a reader poll for "Best Sports Blog". Can you help us defend our title from 2011? Vote daily!

Nashville Predators News

The Hockey News 2012-13 NHL regular season predictions: No. 8 - The Hockey News

In their day-by-day tease of conference standing predictions, THN has the Preds making the playoffs again.

Around the Wide Wide World of Hockey

Potential Lockout Could Halt Record Hockey Growth in U.S. | The United States of Hockey
Interesting numbers on youth hockey levels the last time we had to suffer through a lockout.

Revisiting the 04-05 lockout, when NHLers dominated the world’s hockey leagues | Backhand Shelf
Yeah, back when David Legwand owned the Swiss second division!

Fixing the NHL crisis in five easy steps - sportsnet.ca
I really like what Michael Grange has written earlier this week, but this? Ugh.

Ghost-tweeting and the NHLPA’s propaganda machine | Backhand Shelf
So... either Jordin Tootoo was possessed by Henrik Lundqvist, or they've both got the same ghost-writer manning their Twitter accounts.

Canes Now - History lesson: owners usually get what they want | newsobserver.com blogs
Instructive words here.

NHL-CHL agreement has expired; just don’t jump to conclusions - Buzzing The Net
Some folks got excited about the possibility that young draftees might jump right to the AHL, but don't bet on it.

Wings cancel prospect tournament - Detroit Red Wings
...as was indicated a few days ago, they're doing this due to the labor uncertainty.

Ryan Miller Is The Highest Rated Goalie In NHL 13, But Should He Be? - Die By The Blade
Controversy!

Posnanski: Paterno offered a complex challenge – USATODAY.com
Not hockey related, but the story of how the Penn State scandal broke out while sportswriter Joe Posnanski was preparing a biography of Joe Paterno, and how he had to adjust on the fly, is fascinating.

Nashville Predators announce Town Hall schedule

With the Skate of the Union Town Hall meeting coming up on Monday, August 20th at Bridgestone Arena, a number of folks have been asking about the timing and details of the event. Just a short while ago, the Nashville Predators sent out the following:

WHAT: Nashville Predators' Skate of the Union Town Hall Meeting

· Event highlighted by player autographs, open skate, select a seat/open house, Pro Shop deals, an auction item fire sale, Smashville Rewards demo, Smash Hit Karaoke and Town Hall meeting.

WHO: Nashville Predators players, executives and personalities

WHEN: This Monday, August 20, 4-8 p.m.

· 4-5:30 p.m. - Open skate

· 4:30-6 p.m. - Photo opportunities with select players

· 5-6 p.m. - Player autographs on concourse

· 6:15-6:45 p.m. - Q&A with select players on stage

· 6:45-7:45 p.m. - Town Hall meeting with Tom Cigarran, Jeff Cogen, Sean Henry, David Poile and Peter Horachek. Questions may be submitted online via social media and at main doors of event

WHERE: Bridgestone Arena, 501 Broadway, Nashville TN

NOTES: Players scheduled to appear include Jon Blum, Mike Fisher, Paul Gaustad, Hal Gill, Kevin Klein, Chris Mason, Brian McGrattan, Craig Smith and Colin Wilson.

Attendees to Monday's event will receive a special discount of 25 percent on tickets to Petey's Preds Party on September 17.

The Predators flagship radio station 102.5 The Game will broadcast live from the Skate of the Union Town Hall Meeting.

Free parking will be provided in the Sixth Avenue parking garage (corner of Sixth and Demonbreun).

This all leaves one question hanging in the air... why the heck isn't Shea Weber scheduled to appear?

Update: Per the Preds, Shea has a prior commitment to a hockey school and NHLPA meetings.

I know some Preds fans got their hackles up when the guys on the 3HL raised the question of why he wasn't at the press conference following the team's decision to match the $110 million offer sheet, but it strikes me as really, really strange for a guy not to show his face in town for more than 3 weeks after a deal of this magnitude has been struck.

Anyways, it should be an interesting time Monday night... who will I see there?

Happy Birthday, David Legwand

Just as we wished the Captain a Happy Birthday three days ago, it's time to light the candles on the cake for the longest-serving player in Nashville Predators history, David Legwand, who turns 32. Just check out the list of franchise career leaders over at Hockey-Reference.com, and he's atop the leaderboard in a number of categories:

• Games Played (846)
• Goals (188), Assists (313), Total Points (501) - Nice... 501 Broadway, 501 points!
• Short-handed Goals (10, second behind Greg Johnson)
• Game-Winning Goals (37)

So give it up for Leggy, a guy who has settled into a nice career as one of the core players on a consistently competitive team year-in, year-out. Kick back and enjoy a few highlights from #11 (trust me, it's worth hanging in there for all of them):

My question to you this morning is... how high might Legwand's career numbers climb? Does he have a shot at milestone achievements such as 300 goals, or 1,000 points?

Who is the Greatest #18 in Nashville Predators history?

We will now proceed to #18 of our jersey series. This time, most of our candidates hail from universities with elite hockey programs, while one came from what is now a former NHL city and played only a handful of games with the Predators before being dumped fairly quickly.

Mark Mowers

Mowers made his NHL debut with the Predators in their inaugural season after being signed as a free agent with the team. Prior to coming to the Predators, Mowers accumulated a slew of honors from his collegiate years at the University of New Hampshire, which included Hockey East Rookie of the Year (1995), Hockey East First Team East All-Star (1998), and NCAA East First Team All-American (1998). He went on to play four years for the Predators, splitting his time between them and their farm team in Milwaukee.

In reality, Mowers truly thrived at the minor league level and not so much at the NHL level, where he was only able to 4 goals in 85 games. In 51 games with the Admirals during his first season with the franchise, he scored 14 goals and 36 points, earning the U.S. Born Rookie of the Year-IHL. In his next three years with the Admirals, he scored 55 goals in 131 games. Following his four-year stint with the Predators, Mowers became a free agent and shortly thereafter signed with the Detroit Red Wings. Throughout the rest of his career, Mowers would continue splitting his time between the NHL and AHL before finally moving across the Atlantic to play in the National League A in Switzerland.

Adam Hall

The Michigan State right winger was selected 52nd overall by the Predators in the second round of the 1999 NHL Entry Draft. Hall joined the Predators immediately upon graduation in 2002 and continued with them for three full seasons. His play was very consistent during his time with the Predators, amassing no less than 13 goals and 27 points every season. For his steady performance, Hall was selected to participate in the 2003 Topps/NHL YoungStars game on All-Star weekend and later that spring represented the U.S. at the World Championships.

The following season, Hall was instrumental in helping the Predators reach their first ever playoff series against their arch nemesis, the Detroit Red Wings. Hall's spectacular play earned him an invite to the 2004 World Championships in Prague, Czech Republic. He was eventually traded to the New York Rangers in exchange for Dominic Moore in the summer of 2006.

Mike Santorelli

Santorelli was selected 178th overall in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft by the Preds. After graduating from North Michigan University in 2007, Santorelli joined the Admirals in 2007. The impressive offensive numbers that Preds scouts saw from Santorelli from his time at North Michigan continued, scoring 21 goals and 42 points that season.

In 2008-2009 he scored 27 goals and 43 points for the Ads. That same season, Santorelli made his NHL debut with the Predators on January 8, 2009, against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He would go on to play seven games with the Predators that season, compiling nothing other than a +/- rating of -5 for his stint with the Preds. The next season Santorelli also split his time with the Predators and Admirals. In Milwaukee, his offensive success did not seem to wane at all, scoring 26 goals and 59 points in 57 games. With the Predators, Santorelli was only able to score 2 goals and 3 points in 25 games, and it became clear that Santorelli's offensive success with the Ads did not translate to the NHL level. On August 5, 2010, Santorelli was traded by Nashville to the Florida Panthers for a 5th round pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.

Niclas Bergfors

Bergfors, a quite disappointing acquisition for the Predators, signed a one-year contract worth $575,000 with the Predators on July 4 2011. The previous season, Bergfors had played for the Atlanta Thrashers and was able to score 11 goals and 29 points in 52 games. However, after playing only eleven games with the Predators, Bergfors amassed 1 goal and 1 assist before being placed on unconditional waivers by the Predators on November 24, 2011, making him a free agent. Bergfors soon decided to head overseas to the KHL, signing with the Ak Bars Kazan on 2 December 2011. After playing only eight games with them, he joined Severstal Cherepovets on a two-year contract.

Brandon Yip

A Boston University alum, Yip came over to the Predators to join his former teammate Colin Wilson on January 19, 2012, after being placed on waivers by the Colorado Avalanche. Though it was rumored Yip was to be used as temporary collateral by the Predators to land a big name, the ¾ Chinese, ¼ Irish right winger ended up finding his niche with the Preds. He was worked in on the fourth line with Nick Spaling and Craig Smith, and in 25 games during the remainder of the regular season, Yip recorded 3 goals and 7 assists. He provided the necessary depth the Preds needed to clinch their seventh playoff appearance. In 10 games of the postseason, Yip landed 1 goal and 1 assist.

Poll

Who is the Greatest #18 in Nashville Predators history?

• Niclas Bergfors
• Adam Hall
• Mark Mowers
• Mike Santorelli
• Brandon Yip

  371 votes | Results

It's election season in Nashville: Thursday's notes

Who says you have to wait until November to exercise your right to vote? Your links today include two opportunities to vote for the best & brightest things in the Nashville area...

Follow @Forechecker

Nashville Predators News

Best of Nashville 2012 - The Nashville Scene
This year they have a reader poll for "Best Sports Blog". Can you help us defend our title from 2011?

Thommy Awards | The Thom Abraham Show
Does Shea Weber's contract get your vote as "Area story of the Year"? How about Barry Trotz for Coach of the Year? Head over and make your voice heard...

Junior Evaluation Camp ‘an eye-opening experience’ for Jimmy Vesey - Nashville Predators Examiner
So far, so good, as Jimmy Vesey begins his climb up the ladder towards the NHL.

Destination Nashville? The Free Agency Woes of the Predators : The Hockey Writers
John tries to separate perception from reality on why the Preds can't seem to land the big ones.

Hockey Night in Nashville: Predators plan to reduce Rinne's regular season workload
Could Mase get more work than Anders The Giant did?

Czech Republic's Jan Hlavac finds new home in Kladno with HC Rytiri Kladno - NHL.com
We were just talking about Hlavac the other day...

Around the Wide Wide World of Hockey

A competition metric based on ice time | NHLNumbers.com
This is beautiful, beautiful work here. I've wondered if perhaps we should refine Quality of Competition metrics based on a player's position, and that of his opponents.

Swedish player who suffered cardiac arrest during game returns after nearly three years | Puck Daddy
Now THAT's a comeback.

Do you have hockey junk in your trunk? These jeans might be for you. - Puck Drunk Love
I can't wait for someone to come out with Bloggers' Jeans.

Wayne Simmonds signs 6-year contract extension with Philadelphia Flyers - Broad Street Hockey
Is this another case of a guy going for a long-term deal before term limits are imposed under a new CBA?

NHLPA Counter Offer: What's the Bottom Line? - Arctic Ice Hockey
This post breaks down the numbers using revenue growth totals mimicking recent history, but as I wrote yesterday, that's by no means a sure thing.

NHLPA CBA proposal doesn't look so good the day after: Wednesday's notes

Donald Fehr had a good day in the media yesterday. The appealing part of the NHLPA's CBA proposal was that the players are apparently willing to put a cap on salary growth over the next three seasons, but want to avoid a rollback of current salaries or a straight-out reduction in their share of Hockey Related Revenues. Let the small-market teams benefit from overall league growth by redirecting new money into a "more aggressive and targeted" revenue sharing scheme.

How forward-thinking, many wrote. How magnanimous.

How clever.

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Note especially Donald Fehr's phrasing in the media scrum after yesterday's session. He basically said that if the NHL continued to grow revenues at the post-2005 rate, the giveback by the players would amount to roughly $465 million. Then, in a real eyebrow-raiser, he said if that growth continued at the pace of the last couple seasons, that figure could approach $800 million. Wowza!

That ain't happening, though.

Last season, two major new business deals drove a huge revenue boost for the league compared to 2010-2011. First, there's the broadcast agreement with NBC and its affiliated channels, worth $200 million per season. Secondly, Molson became the league's North American beer sponsor for seven years and $375 million (averaging out to $53.5M per season). Add in the benefit of moving a franchise from Atlanta to Winnipeg (where they sold out every game with some of the highest ticket prices in the league) and 2011-2012 looks like a year when a lot of very good things came together.

Those major boosts are already on the books, so expecting similar levels of revenue growth in the years ahead may be unrealistic. The concessions touted by the NHLPA could be significant if that growth continued, but if not? The owners would not get any benefit.

Fehr's proposal could be seen as a move to lock in the gains the NHL has already achieved and will benefit from in the years ahead, while the owners seem intent on making sure they get more of the cash regardless of whether revenues continue to grow or not. As Gary Bettman said this afternoon, there is a still a "wide gap" between the two sides.

Did you really expect anything different? If the NHLPA proposal was such a bold and innovative way to ensure the overall success of the league, wouldn't the owners have thought of it already? Whether or not you agree with that statement, you can bet that thought has crossed many owners' minds!

You're afternoon hockey notes contain more on the CBA and other items from around the league...

Nashville Predators News

One month out: The NHL labor talks and how the Preds may benefit | nashvillepost.com
J.R. makes an exhaustive run through the CBA story to this point, and how the Preds might benefit from things like increased revenue sharing and the ability to trade cap space.

Nashville Predators CEO Jeff Cogen knows team's money limits | The Tennessean
In order to support a competitive team, you can expect regular price increases going forward.

A Dangerous and Deceptive 3rd Line: Craig Smith | The Predatorial

Can Craig Smith earn an opportunity at center?

Around the Wide Wide World of Hockey

Grange on NHL: Cloaked in compromise - sportsnet.ca
Michael Grange points out that the NHLPA proposal wasn't quite the bouquet of roses some made it out to be.

Gary Bettman says ‘wide gap’ remains in NHL labour talks - The Globe and Mail
The Commish rains on the parade some members of the media were planning for Donald Fehr.

Introducing today’s NHL jerseys, in 8-bit SNES form | Backhand Shelf
Sweeeeeet.

Why I Want To Kill Game Time - St. Louis Game Time
I can certainly sympathize.

Pacioretty Signs For What? - Habs Eyes On The Prize
Habs fans are giddy over the deal that locks up this goal-scoring power forward for 6 years.

NHL CBA Talks: The Players Strike Back - but with a velvet glove?

Today, as expected, the NHLPA presented their proposal for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, but steered shy of the word "counter-proposal" because their vision of the league's future is fundamentally different than that proposed by the owners over a month ago.

For hockey fans hoping for a timely start to the season, there is a tiny ray of hope here, in that the players chose not to take a super-aggressive stance like the owners did, when a "gimme gimme gimme" attitude came across in every point. Instead, they offered significant concessions on key issues which may allow the two sides to avoid the drawn-out affair which led to a lost season and the imposition of the salary cap back in 2005. Emphasize that word "may".

Only now are negotiations truly going to get underway, however, now that each party has laid out their starting positions. It took a long time to get to this point, and to expect that an agreement will get hammered out in time for an October 11 Opening Night is, to put it bluntly, optimistic.

UPDATE: Video of NHLPA head Donald Fehr's address after today's session follows...

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Players OK With Salary Cap

Interestingly, and running counter to expectations, Donald Fehr indicated after the session that the players' proposal does include a hard salary cap. In addition, their proposal has them accepting less of a share in Hockey Related Revenues over the next 3 seasons, recognizing that some teams need financial relief. Of course, the devil is in the details, and we have yet to see the specifics of the NHLPA proposal.

The major issue on the ownership side is the disparity between the Haves and Have-Nots of the league, which has many teams raking in tremendous profits while others struggle to keep up with the rising salary environment. The owners' initial proposal sought to carve enough cash out of the players to make everybody happy at the Board of Governors meetings, and the NHLPA is seemingly putting the onus back on the league, through "more aggressive and targeted revenue sharing."

Attention Shifts To The Owners

Watchful eyes will now turn to Gary Bettman and the owners' camp, to see how the NHL responds to this offer. Perhaps more important than the specifics of their next proposal will be the timing - will it take days or weeks to arrive?

Those owners, remember, are coming from a strong position. They already have 2012-2013 season ticket money in the bank, and are better suited to wait out a lockout than the players. More NHL players make less than $1 million per season than make more (369 are above that mark for 2012-2013 per NHLNumbers.com, out of an NHLPA membership of 863).

Many in that majority will start getting uncomfortable once paychecks are missed beginning in October. That's when the pressure will truly escalate, and only then do I expect we'll see a deal struck.

Teams are already talking about cancelling prospect tournaments that they usually conduct as a lead-in to training camp, and of course the European games that traditionally open the season were scrapped months ago.

According to the players' union, no Nashville Predators participated in today's session.