Labour Disputes in the NHL

In 2004, team owners enforced a lockout banning members of the NHL Players’ Association (hockey players) from play. The lockout, a result of the players’ resistance to a salary cap, lasted 310 days, from 16 September 2004 to 13 July 2005. The result was a salary cap of $39 million (US) per team for the 2005–06 season and a significant reduction in players’ salaries. It was the first time a labour dispute caused a major North American sports league had to lost an entire season. It also resulted in cancellation of the Stanley Cup playoffs; for the second time in its history, the cup was not awarded (the first was in 1919 due to the influenza epidemic).

When the 2005 collective bargaining agreement expired in 2012, teams and players once again found themselves arguing about money. The major issue this time was the percentage of hockey-related revenues the players would receive in a season. According to the existing regulations regarding signed contract, players received approximately 57 per cent of all hockey-related revenues, but the NHL made the percentage dropped significantly. Neither the players nor the NHL would budge, and the resulting lockout cancelled 510 regular season games (34 games per team), the NHL All-Star Game, and the 2013 Winter Classic between 2 teams the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings. An agreement was finally signed on 12 January 2013, with players and owners sharing hockey-related revenues 50–50, among other conditions.

Canadians in the NHL

The spread of hockey and growing proficiency of players in Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the United States is reflected in the increasing number of players from these nations in the NHL, including many of the Finnish, Russian, Swedish, and Czech stars who emerged in the 1990s. In recent years, the number of NHL players recruited by Canadian junior hockey has declined significantly. As of 2015, Canadians account for approximately half of the league’s players, a decrease of around 25 per cent from 1990. As in the past, Canadians continue to play crucial roles on and off the ice; for example, Jonathan Toews led the Chicago Blackhawks to glory in 2010, 2013 and 2015, while Sidney Crosby won the Cup in 2009 and 2016 as captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins.