CJ wrote:All about the money, unfortunately.
As I said above, I am glad that the player's bluff has been called...now they can prove it's just not "talk" that international play is more important than the NHL/Stanley Cup/making money
If I was a European/Russian fan I'd be really disappointed in the older star players (because they're already multimillionaires) if they didn't retire from the NHL at the end of this season to allow themselves to play in the Olympics.....for example, Lundqvist spoke out on social media about his disappointment/the value of the Olympics, so I seriously would expect him to forego the $29 million the NYR are scheduled to pay him over the next four years and play in the a League like the SHL or KHL for a tiny fraction of that, so he can play in the Olympics
Same with the outspoken players like Ovechkin and Voracek.....to maintain any integrity at all I think they have to retire from the NHL - unless they're just as in it for the money as all who get attacked by many (whether the NHL, IOC, IIHF, etc)
The pay cut will be huge though, as if I understand correctly the KHL is by far the highest paying League after the NHL, and only the top 7-8 players make more than the average NHL salary & the top 400+ NHLers make as much or more than the 30th best salary in the KHL (factoring in a 45% increase in KHL salaries to account for no taxes paid).....but they'll still be rich! It's not as if they'd be poor if they didn't get NA money
As a guy who grew up on Canada Cups, and Olympic hockey being less relevant than the Worlds, it doesn't really bother me.....I'd suspect (and hope/pray!) that the NHL will drop the U23 Team and Team Europe idea from the World Cup, and that'll become a more regular event and we'll still have a best-on-best
If European/Russian fans don't like that, I hope they start supporting their local Elite Leagues.....if the KHL can manage to increase their salaries paid by 300-400 percent maybe players wouldn't be flocking to the NHL (but alas the KHL's actually contracting teams/reducing salaries) -
if it really is "all about the money" then the money European/Russian fans won't or can't pay is probably the biggest factor IMO
I don't think there's a top soccer/football League in the world that would act any differently than the NHL if they had essentially no competition for players (and no significant culture of international play), with all players coming to them; soccer/football has
multiple competing Elite Leagues of high quality, and that's what hockey needs IMO
It'd be better for the sport as a whole, international play would be better IMO, and it'd hopefully help reduce the homogenized, boring play that I think is modern hockey
And there's no culture of nationalism in sports in NA.....nobody playing one of the top sports in NA grows up caring about international play, and the huge numbers that watch are just watching because they're on/it's something to do (peak Olympic viewing in the last Olympics was less than a TV show like American Idol got at its peak....they're big numbers, but they don't "matter" and people will easily watch something else if Olympic hockey isn't on.....NA culture doesn't passionately follow the exploits of players overseas because "they're from the home country" - when NA players played overseas during the lockout there was no coverage! maybe 30 seconds or less mention on the occasional newscast, no highlights, no games...people just did something else with their available freetime)
