NHL Players Impacted by Potential Lockout
By Greg Thornberry
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you already know where I stand on this round of CBA negotiations and potential lockout talk. Today however I push money talk aside and present to you the impact a lockout did and could have on the NHL.
Baseball, was severely hurt after a work stoppage, and the only thing that brought it around was a chase for Roger Maris’s record by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. That was a much stronger league than this one.
In 2005 the NHL emerged from a cancelled season a better league. It had a better financial system, better rules, and a wealth of young talent that any sports league would covet. It was the beginning of a golden age of hockey. This time things are different. There is no Crosby or Ovechkin emerging as a rookie to capture fans attention. The game has actually slowed down to near pre lockout levels and there seems to be no urgency to fix it.
Many things will be impacted should there be another NHL lockout. None will be more noticed than stars riding off into the night. The 2004 lockout was truly a changing of the guard if there ever was one. What will the league will look like in 2013 if there is no hockey in 2012?
Many of our heroes never laced up their skates again after the last labor dispute. Others did, but were clearly impacted by the year off. Here is a list of a few players that never returned to the NHL after the 2004-05 season was cancelled.
- Mark Messier
- Murray Baron
- Christian Berglund
- Adam Oates
- Scott Stevens (Concussions)
- Brett Hull (Only Played 5 Games)
A precious year was lost to other aging NHL stars such as Mario Lemieux, Luc Robitaille and Steve Yzerman. However, coming out of the lockout, a new generation was ready to burst onto the scene. New life was injected into the league with a rookie class featuring today’s greats.
- Sidney Crosby
- Alexander Ovechkin
- Mike Richards
- Thomas Vanek
- Corey Perry
- Ryan Getzlaf
- Cam Ward
- Zach Parise
- Ryan Suter
- Shea Weber
- Henrik Lundqvist
- Sean O’Donnell
- Daniel Alfredsson
- Teemu Selanne
- Nikolai Khabibulin
- Jaromir Jagr
- Martin Brodeur
- John Madden
- Andrew Brunette
- Jason Blake
- Mike Knuble
- Milan Hejduk
- Tomas Holmstrom
Does the next generation have the chops to keep up the progress that the NHL has made since 2004? Who will we look to for that new burst of excitement to mend fences with the fans? Will these players rise to the occasion?
- Ryan Murray
- Nail Yakupov
- Ryan Strome
- Olli Maatta
- Ryan Murphy
- Duncan Siemens
- Radek Faksa
- Jonathan Huberdeau
- Mikael Granlund
- Filip Forsberg
All of this does not take into account the tempered excitement in markets that made big moves this offseason. The Minnesota Wild want to see Zach Parise and Ryan Suter in action, not to mention Carolina with Jordan Staal and Alex Semin. New York fans are anxious for Rick Nash to light the lamp in MSG.
Another interesting tidbit to remember is that after the 2004-05 season was cancelled amateur leagues were pushing for the Stanley Cup to be given out to another leagues champion, even going so far as to bring legal action.
Finally I leave you with this thought. Remember that this does not affect only the players. The last time around there were league wide layoffs of office personnel and other employees that weren’t making millions of dollars a year, and this time will be no different. Many NHL teams have already informed employees of pay cuts and layoffs will follow should this process continue.
Let us hope that this entire conversation becomes irrelevant and the season begins on time, for everyone involved.
Until next time…….
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