This was plain foolish, Joeyido69. Plain foolish.

Luongo has $47,284,000 left to be paid on his contract, and to be paid as shown in the left column, and how he would get paid if they agreed to have their contracts restructured in the right column.
2012-13 – $6,714,000 – $4,728,400
2013-14 – $6,714,000 – $4,728,400
2014-15 – $6,714,000 – $4,728,400
2015-16 – $6,714,000 – $4,728,400
2016-17 – $6,714,000 – $4,728,400
2017-18 – $6,714,000 – $4,728,400
2018-19 – $3,382,00 – $4,728,400
2019-20 – $1,618,000 – $4,728,400
2020-21 – $1,000,000 – $4,728,400
2021-22 – $1,000,000 – $4,728,400

The current cap hit for this contract is $5,333,333, and would be $4,728,400 if they can restructure.

The yearly amount for a restructured contract may differ. The NHL’s proposal indicated that there can be no more than a 5% differential year over year. Is it really in Luongo’s best interest to lose 6.7m this year or lose 2m and make up for the lost over the remaining years of his contract?

That’s why I keep hoping for the players to see the lesser of 2 evils. Am I that far off? Doesn’t it make more financial sense to take the hit now? Tell you what. If I get 100 thumbs down because of this logic, then I’m out of here.

Contraction is not the answer, relocation is
Seattle, Southern Ontario and QC

Also, speak for yourselves about the whole contraction thing. A lot of fans don’t want to see their teams move, and you’ll hit a lot of fans hard if you do. It’s never easy, but I think you move the franchises that are overloading their state. I could see the Panthers moving because the Lightning have (generally) been a better team, and seem to be more popular, especially with Stamkos on the rise. Phoenix is…well, a hell of a mess, but still has some solid fans.

It’s hard to take a team away from the fans, at the end of the day.

I was raised in Indiana as a diehard B-Hawks and N-Stars fan (that might sound odd but its true). I have also LIVED in North Carolina and Oklahoma and I can say for 100% sure those ARE hockey states. especially N Carolina. so KEEP the Carolina Hurricanes and the Dallas Stars.

the teams that need to go are obviously Phoenix, Columbus, and either Florida or Nashville. when I say need to go I mean relocated, preferably in Canada where the sport was built. how can there honestly be only 6 Canadian teams??? I think 2 teams need to go back asap. one to Quebec, and one to Ontario.

“The NHLPA’s latest offer would have given the league and players a 50-50 split of hockey-related revenues, plus an additional $393 million to the players over four years in recognition of the contracts already signed.

“The NHL rejected that offer and there have been no major negotiations since. It appears that in addition to the financial issues, the two sides are divided when it comes to contract rights.”

So, no, the owners do NOT want to honor contracts they signed. That alone makes them the bad guys here. “(Y)ou’re obviously misinformed.” The league is attempting to beat the union down into irrelevance on virtually every issue. Getting the union to agree to any plan that would allow the league to dishonor recently signed contracts would set a very bad precedent for salary negotiations in the future.

What the league really wants is a players’ union in name only in order to retain their anti-trust exemption, while dictating every aspect of business. Thinking the players should cave to that agenda is short-sighted and somewhat selfish.

Fun fact – the last major league professional sports franchise to simply fold was the Cleveland Barons. That was now 34 years ago.

GMs have to win, and to do so they need to be convincing when seeking the owner’s approval for spending the big bucks on front loaded contracts. Ex: Parise, Sutter, Weber, Luongo, Hossa etc… The owners will fire Bettman when they’ll no longer be satisfied with his work. BTW, not only do the owners want to eliminate these front loaded contracts ( back diving) in the new CBA, they want the new terms to be retroactive to existing back-diving contracts.