Hockey Widow wrote: Therein lies the problem. If they agree to 50-50 then they take a pay cut via higher escrow payments, without getting anything back. If the NHL would allow existing contracts to be honoured over the 50% up to the 57% they would eventually all be off the books.
Thing is,,,, the current contracts were never expected, by either side, to be paid in full.
What the league could, and likely would do is slow the drop down too 50% so that the players don't get hammered by escrow. If the players are pitching proposals with 5% year over year growth, then the players portion could drop by about 2.5% per year with out a significant drop in the cap.
If the offer were 57%, 54.5%, 52%, 50%, 50%, 50%, then current contracts wouldn't change much unless growth is less then 5%.
To me that is the logical solution and I think the owners would be happy with that deal.
The players on the other hand probably wouldn't be happy as they are dropping from their current share with nothing in return.
That said I do not think the players will take that