Monday, July 18, 2005

It's back to work and there's a lot of it to do!

With both the NHL owners and the NHLPA expected to ratify their template for success later this week, it's now time for the General Managers and player agents to start to earn their pay.

This week is going to be a rather busy one for all concerned, with league meetings on competition planned for Tuesday, as the league whittles down all those wild recommendations we've been hearing about. The players will cast their votes aye or nay on Thursday as electronic balloting will determine if they will accept the deal put together by Gary and Bob, barring a massive power failure or computer meltdown it's expected they will vote to accept the terms and get ready to go back to the rink.

Sidney Crosby will find out who will control his immediate future this week, the much anticipated draft lottery will take place Friday, held in apparent secrecy we shall wait for the white smoke to come out of the NHL offices in New York before we learn where young Sidney will call home, that is unless the rights holder has a brain cramp and decides to trade the young phenom to another team, a highly unlikely scenario unless some GM is looking for early retirement.

GM's have already been holding study sessions on the new world of the CBA, the player agents will be heading for boot camp this week as they learn the details of the new agreement and how they can find a way to wring out every last penny for their clients.

Friday is the big day though, as mentioned above the Crosby announcement will be made and Gary Bettman will stride to a microphone to deliver Crosby's new address, Bettman will also tie up the weeks loose ends and set the stage for the entry draft to come at the end of the month in Ottawa. And he will give us an idea as to what rules will be changed after the Colin Campbell lectures of Tuesday.

All in all a lot of work for a bunch of guys that haven't had much to do the last 301 days or so, woe be the first guy to put in for an Overtime cheque!

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