CANTLON’S CORNER: AHL ON THIN ICE 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The AHL will open its season in just over two weeks.

The Hartford Wolf Pack will have a 24-game schedule featuring all afternoon games. Friday was the schedule’s release date, but issues surrounding players’ compensation, including their housing arrangements, are in great flux. That flux has created genuine consternation among players throughout a league season that will consist of 28-teams. Over that last week, the myriad of concerns run from coast-to-coast.

In an exclusive interview with Cantlon’s Corner, PHPA AHL union head Larry Landon, who has been in his role for the last 28 years, has been ringing a five-alarm bell in private for some time and especially over the previous week.

On Friday, Landon’s discussions with new AHL President and CEO, Scott Howson, and Executive Vice-President of the NHL, Bill Daley, have not quelled his concerns. Landon’s nature is to remain hopeful that a meeting of the minds will occur.

“We have three experienced people that have to find a way forward with different constituents. We have to find that path going forward that will be to the satisfaction of all,” Landon said from Niagara Falls, Canada, in the province of Ontario, on Friday, where they are in the midst of a COVID lockdown.

At present, most of the AHL’s markets have fan restrictions or that do not allow, and a small percentage of markets are presently in lockdown.

To start the 2020-21 season, only two AHL markets, Austin, TX, the home of the Texas Stars, and the Cleveland Monsters, will allow reduced capacity fan attendance. Others are waiting on decisions by public health officials.

At the heart of the anxiety happening across the board in the AHL is players’ compensation payments plans and if the formula going forward will be on a per-game basis or a per-day basis.

“We have a proposal on the table that is fair. We don’t want players playing and being paid below the poverty line. I had an understanding under the letter of June 2nd, which MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) extended the CBA, and I understood we would be pro-rating salaries.

“That, however, was based on a 56-60 game season. When I discussed those with outgoing AHL President, Dave Andrews, and Scott Howson, the new incoming AHL President, and the Return to Play committee, we never envisioned a 24-game schedule like Hartford has, or a 32 (game schedule), or in some cases, a 44-game schedule, for teams in the Pacific Division.

“I’m not lost on the fact that we have just 28 teams. We just want the players to be properly compensated and they and their families to be treated fairly this year. If there had been, say, a universal schedule of say 40 games, players could have lived with that, but that’s not what we have.

“I really respect the work Scott has done because about six weeks ago, we had just 20 teams that were going to be able to play.

“Given the cost of housing and costs after taxes, on say $27-to-$35,000, in a place like California, where rents are, in some areas, $6,000 to $10,000 for a four-month period, and that’s what the AHL season is going to be, February 5th to May 16th, just 101 days. These athletes are not buying flashy sports cars. They need the money to train and live on with their expenses.”

A long-trusted source with intimate knowledge of what is presently at stake stated that it would have both short and long-term effects on the AHL and its future operations.

“It’s a tough situation all around. I don’t blame Scott (Howson), who really gets the short-end-of-the-stick coming in as the new guy with all of this (crap) going on, or Larry (Landon), but I think it should not have gotten this far so late with so many unresolved issues.

“I just think this should have been dealt with in the summer in between ending the 2019-20 NHL season and planning for this 2020-21 season when they did the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) that extended the NHL CBA. But, here we are.”

AHL salaries have gone up over the years, and many guys signed healthy deals back in the fall when contract signing season began.

Now that the schedules have been slashed because of COVID-19, particularly the minor leagues operating without fans, cutting off the ANY minor league sports entity’s financial oxygen.

The San Diego Gulls will play a 44 game schedule. The Stockton Heat, Bakersfield Condors, and Henderson Silver Knights will each have 40 games.

Texas, the Colorado Eagles, Ontario Reign, and Lehigh Valley Phantoms all have 38 games on their schedules, while the Hershey Bears have 36 contests.

The Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Wolf Pack, and Providence Bruins have the fewest games at 24. The Canadian division, consisting of the Laval Rocket, Toronto Marlies, Belleville Senators, and the Province of Ontario, will release their schedules later.

The question is the basis for whether contracts are on a per-game or a per-day basis. As of today, no financial standard is embedded in stone but remains a free-floating target and has added a significant level of stress to an already tense environment.

“The numbers have changed on a weekly basis. I heard $50K was the floor Friday and Monday. I’m hearing $40K. How can players, their agents, or the GM’s of a team actually operate like that?

“I hope a third party with some clout, maybe an arbitrator, can come in and help as everybody moves to a plateau they can all agree on and live with. Nobody will get a 100%, but this a serious issue for players.”

The AHL CBA has $51K as the minimum salary, but these are not standard times, and the NHL MOU supersedes their deal.

“The players are hearing the double-negative talk. You say, for argument’s sake, signed a deal for $100K with your team. You’ll only play 30 games. If you’re talking per game roll back, guys will lose in some cases over 50%, and they have expenses too, like rent, and where do you get a four-month private lease?

“If you’re in a market, based on what I have heard, it’s going to be a 100-day max during the AHL season. If you have a flat rate to negotiate for a player, you have something to negotiate about and some starting point.

“The players need to have some level of knowledge of what the rules are going to be. Right now, so much is unknown, and the time is very short right now.”

With these issues beginning to mushroom, Landon has been working around the clock over the past two months.

He passionately defends his 1,800 members as if they were his own family.

“These are young men not driving flashy cars, multi-millionaires, they’re chasing their dreams, and this is their job, and all we’re asking is they be treated fairly,”  Landon said.

The rollback was based on a more consistent schedule of at least 40 games. The 24 games that the Atlantic Division is having was not in the cards.

NHL teams currently own 20 of the 32 AHL franchises. Three AHL teams, the Springfield Thunderbirds, Charlotte Checkers, and Milwaukee Admirals, have stated they will not play this season. Those teams’ move has had and will continue to have a severe effect on the player market.

“To be honest, some AHL veterans have been phased out because of this, and young college or junior players looking for that training camp chance to impress somebody and maybe get a nice AHL deal for a year has been lost with no training camps and a reduced pool of players.

“Look, Chicago, Utica, and Syracuse, they don’t have to sign some vets or younger guys because they’re getting those players for free with the dual affiliation!

“Now, the average AHL player has their budget for housing, and some markets are pretty steep. How can the gap be bridged and be filled? I’m not sure the guys with families have serious decisions to make. I can’t even take a wild guess how they do this!”

Billet families have long been the staple of junior hockey, and some AHL teams become impossible because the COVID health protocols of reducing exposure possibilities are a no-go.

Doing a team housing situation is an idea to control the environment, but married and single guys have different priorities.

Can housing be done on a short-term rental deal? Possibly. Some short-term deals at several of the newly built apartments along Allyn Street, near Bushnell Park, and of course Hartford 21 attached to the XL Center remain an option.

How viable? It’s impossible to know for sure at this point.

“The NHL really values the AHL as an asset and vehicle for their prospects to play, and not playing a whole year is not an option.

“However, the NHL has taken some shots off the shins too, and are hobbling around like everyone else, but there are many people in a much different and in more precarious situations (in the outside world) than we even realize. I like to think something can get done. What is happening out there isn’t good for anyone.

“Hey, we all laughed at the ECHL when they announced their schedule so early, but they’re playing right now. It might not be ideal, but hell, they lost a whole division and are playing with just 15 (13) teams, but the doors are still open.”

The AHL meets two critical pieces in the NHL scheme of things. It allows teams’ prospects to play this year and not lose a whole season, no matter how shortened that season will be.

The other is written in stone that by July 17th, all the NHL teams must submit their expansion list for the Seattle Kraken to review for the NHL expansion draft.

Seattle’s General Manager, and former Hartford Whalers great, Ron Francis, will need to decide which players to select. They would prefer to have their scouting departments see them play to make a current evaluation, rather than relying on reports that are a year old.

Off the ice, things are moving along as best they can in this COVID environment. The Wolf Pack are operating at the XL Center and Champions Skating Center in Cromwell in small pod groups. Still, training camp is not expected to take place officially until Monday the 25th, but they have cleared and resolved all issues with the CT Department of Public Health (DPH) requirements.

All contract amendments have been approved by the CRDA Venue committee and were unanimously approved Thursday by the full board at their monthly meeting. That makes them legal and binding, and MSG and the CRDA can sign new amended contracts.

The time-period will overlap as it covers the fiscal years 2020 and 2021.

Spectra, the XL Center’s building operator, and MSG are handling all building cleaning matters. It’s taking place after hours and overnight, according to CRDA Executive Director Michael W, Freimuth.

No fans will be allowed in the building at the start of the season, but Wolf Pack fans who put their season ticket deposit money down are getting the subscription to the AHLTV package for free. When the season starts on February 7th against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, it will be the first Wolf Pack season to begin on a Sunday in the team’s 24-year history. It starts on Super Bowl Sunday, no less.

Like everything else, it’s subject to change.