There has been a lot of angst of late surrounding Quinn Hughes' next contract and whether or not it will come with the Vancouver Canucks.
The Canucks captain is eligible for a contract extension next year on July 1, which makes this upcoming season an incredibly important one. The Canucks have to show their superstar defenceman that there is a clear path forward to contending for the Stanley Cup. Otherwise, Hughes could be gone.
It's a reality that even the Canucks' president of hockey operations, Jim Rutherford, has acknowledged, admitting that if they can't get a contract extension done.
If they can get a contract extension done, there's one thing we already know about it. It won't be an eight-year contract.
In the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the NHL and the NHL Players' Association, eight years is the maximum contract length, which is only allowed if a player is re-signing with their current team. Otherwise, the maximum contract length is seven years.
On Thursday, however, news broke that the NHL and NHLPA have agreed to the framework of an extension to the CBA — a Memorandum of Understanding — that would come with a number of changes, including a reduction in the maximum number of years that a player can sign with a team.
According to , one of the provisions in the four-year extension to the CBA would limit the term of contracts to seven years for players re-signing with their current team and six years for players signing with a different team in free agency.
Players signed in free agency next week will be under the old agreement. By the time Hughes is eligible for a contract extension with the Canucks, it will be under the new agreement, limiting the maximum length of Hughes' contract to seven years.
While fans would love to see Hughes locked up to an eight-year contract, it seems this new arrangement with shorter-term contracts primarily benefits the owners, who may be getting nervous with the salary cap skyrocketing in the next few years. The next three seasons will see the salary cap limit go up to $95.5 million, $104 million, and $113 million, with player cap hits climbing in concert with those increases. Capping the maximum number of years that a team would pay a player would limit the risk for owners.
On the other hand, there's a benefit to players as well, who may not want to be locked up in long-term deals at lower cap hits while their peers sign richer contracts as the salary cap climbs. There's a trade-off: less long-term security for the possibility of richer contracts in the future.
There are a few other significant changes coming with the modified CBA, including an 84-game regular season. While some have called for a shorter season, two more regular season games means more revenue for teams. As a trade-off, the preseason will be shortened.
In addition, the NHL and NHLPA will be changing how the salary cap works in the playoffs, in hopes of closing the so-called "LTIR loophole" where players, such as Evander Kane for the Edmonton Oilers this past season, were held on LTIR until the start of the playoffs, allowing teams to drastically exceed the salary cap with their playoff rosters.
Another change affects the NHL Draft, as teams will hold the signing rights of drafts picks until the age of 22, rather than a certain number of years depending on what league the player was drafted from.
On the players' side, they get an increase in playoff bonuses, improved health insurance benefits, and a ban on teams mandating dress codes.
