Labor peace in the NHL has been celebrated across the sports world. After spending decades as the league most likely to fall into a lockout, happening three times in 20 years, including an entire season lost in 2004-05. However, the league and the player’s union has been able to come to simple agreements with rapidly rising revenues and player salaries to match. Teams are selling for billions of dollars, and players are seeing their paychecks rise higher than inflation.
Just about everyone is happy with the state of the game right now, but that sentiment isn’t trickling down to the minor leagues. Right now, the AHL is playing without a labor deal in place, deciding to extend the previous deal until they can come to a longer-term agreement. However, it sounds like that is closer than the third-tier professional league.
The ECHL is in trouble. After a very tumultuous and, frankly, messy day, the Professional Hockey Players’ Association states that they feel the league is not negotiating in good faith, and it has threatened to start a player’s strike on Friday, December 26th.
The ECHL is facing serious labor strife that could lead to a strike if a deal doesn't come by Friday
The ECHL is currently on its Christmas break, giving the league and the player’s association a few days to come to terms, but the holiday could complicate the issue. At the forefront of the issue remains salary and safety, especially when it comes to travel. The league claims they offered significant raises (an immediate 16.4% raise, with retroactive pay for this season, and eventual raised that equal 27% higher cap ceiling from today).
Meanwhile, the player’s union says that they have been dealing with insane travel demands during the season and have been offered used equipment and helmets that aren’t safe for players on the ice.
There have been a few significant Devils prospects who played for the Adirondack Thunder this season. Cam Squires was sent down to the ECHL to give him significant playing time, and Jakub Malek was sent down after he had a rough start to his North American career.
It’s still unclear what happens to roster limits in the AHL if Devils prospects aren’t allowed to play in the ECHL. There are questions ahead of Friday’s deadline, but the hope is this fighting comes with a deal in time to keep the games on the ice.