The NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is the basic contract between the National Hockey League (NHL; 32 team owners and NHL commissioner) and the NHL Players' Association (NHLPA), designed to be arrived at through the typical labour–management negotiations of collective bargaining. On January 6, 2013, an agreement was tentatively reached after a labour dispute cancelled 510 regular season games of the 2012–13 season, and was ratified by the league's Board of Governors on January 9, 2013, as well as by the NHLPA membership three days later on January 12, 2013. As originally signed, the 2013 CBA was a 10-year deal, longest in NHL history, expiring after the 2021–22 season. On July 10, 2020, the NHL and NHLPA announced the extension of the CBA through the 2025–26 NHL season.[1] On June 27, 2025, the CBA was extended again through the 2029–30 NHL season.
History
1994–1995 lockout
The previous agreement was signed in 1995 following a lockout which shortened the 1994–95 NHL season to 48 games, a loss of 34 games from what had originally been an 82-game schedule. None of the games scheduled for the 1994 segment of the season was ever played, the lockout lasting until after the beginning of 1995. The collective bargaining agreement was initially to last for six seasons and be open to re-negotiation in 1998, but was eventually extended to last until September 15, 2004 (one day after the World Cup of Hockey final in Toronto).
2004–2005 lockout
On the expiration date of the old agreement, the NHL Board of Governors, representing ownership, met and unanimously decided that the 2004–05 NHL season would be delayed until a new collective bargaining agreement was in place. The owners' lockout of players began at 12:01 a.m. on September 16, 2004, the day most NHL training camps would have opened had the NHLPA and the NHL come to an agreement. By November 2004 it became apparent that the entire 2004–05 season was in jeopardy and supposedly "last-ditch" efforts were undertaken to avoid this, but little, if any, progress was seen during the last few months of 2004. The general consensus of many sportswriters and other knowledgeable observers was that, if the entire 2004–05 season were cancelled, the owners would attempt to open training camps in September 2005 for the 2005–06 NHL season
See also
- NHL salary cap
- List of player salaries in the NHL
External links
References
- NHL, NHLPA ratify CBA extension through 2025-26 season nhl.com^
- Dan Rosen. Kovy deal registered as NHL, NHLPA reach settlement NHL, 4 September 2010, retrieved 1 October 2010^
- NHL lockout timeline: Let's remember the whole nightmare