Fred wrote:Hey if it's for the love of the game ....which is complete balderdash.... it's about the love of money. There's lots of quality ( ex NHL players and Junior A players ) amateur leagues in Canada if they want to play for the "love of the games" After convincing others that they need huge dollars to risk playing the sport because of injury or length of time they play ... what ever .... they're now willing to play and risk every thing for 1/100th of what they were insisting on before. How do you think fans paying for all those rediculous tickets feel. The poor stiff getting screwed is the 4th line players in the SEL or KHL who's out of a job and the Hell with that guys family.
I know right now some are suggesting that owners should increase the sharing of wealth amongst all the teams ....Hey !!! how about Weber sharing some of his wealth with the guys playing 4th line being paid minimum.
Actually... During the last lockout several of the Swedish players played for their old teams for free. I really can't see how that could be about money. In fact, they risked losing money if they'd become injured, and lose out on future contracts, so the smarter more economic thing would be not to play, but hey - hockey is their life and what they love to do.
In fact, Forsberg even paid a couple of millions to play. He felt he wanted to join the team from the beginning, so he ignored counting the days like most other players did, and spent more than 183 days in Sweden during 2004, which means he was considered a Swedish resident and had to pay Swedish taxes. Back then we had a wealth tax, which was 1 % of your wealth above SEK 2 million, and Forsberg was good for a couple of hundred million dollars, so his stay in Sweden cost him, whereas the team didn't pay him any salary, just picked up his insurance tab. That tax has been eliminated since by the centre-right coalition we have in government now, so it'd not be as risky for Swedish players to come home this winter.
It's not stealing jobs, it's giving something back to the teams that taught them how to skate and stick handle when they were six.