With the NHL lockout now official, we’re starting to see some of the trickle-down effects on people not directly involved in the dispute.
The first to be hit were the NHL team front office staffs. Several teams had layoffs or salary reductions this week, including the Senators and Panthers, and others, like the Flames, have instituted paycuts for some employees.
The Stars, meanwhile, are holding on to their entire staff for the time being, Stars president Jim Lites told the Dallas Morning News.
“These are good people and we feel about good about what we’ve been able to build here, so we don’t want to change anything,” Lites said. “If this drags on, we’ll have to reassess, but we are going to attempt to work with the staff we have right now.”
The article also mentions that the employees at league headquarters have taken a hit. The NHL employees will have a four-day workweek for the rest of the lockout, effectively reducing their salaries by 20 percent.
After the jump, some of the Stars get their starts in Europe, Mike Modano doesn’t think lockouts are worth it and why the new CBA needs some provision to save the owners from themselves.
- After a brief issue with some of the transfer cards, several of the top-tier NHL players have safely made it to the KHL and other European leagues, including the Stars own Jaromir Jagr. [USA Today]
- As far as those still stateside, options are obviously more limited. But Scott Burnside speculates that the Allen Americans might be attractive to NHL players if the lockout turns into a long-term thing. [ESPN]
- Speaking of ESPN, another moment of silence for the ESPN Dallas Stars blog, which seemed to spring back to life by posting a press release a little more than one month ago but has gone back to it’s slow, painful decline.
- Jamie Benn, one of the Stars who isn’t headed overseas, is also not in Dallas either. He’s currently skating near his hometown with several of his former junior teammates. [Victoria Times Colonist]
- In spite of the lockout, the fine folks over at Puck Daddy are doing a campaign-style rundown of the teams we hope to see on the ice in the next eight months or so. And they made me smile by the “attack ad” at the end. [Puck Daddy]
- Corey Hersch would like to sell you on the prospect of the Texas Tornado as the replacement for your Stars fix. [JuniorHockey.com]
- And back to that omni-present lockout, Mike Modano talked about the 2004-05 version with ESPN’s Craig Custance. As always, it’s a very frank opinion from Modano. [ESPN]
- The CBC’s excellent Elliotte Friedman educates and depresses in one fell swoop. [CBC.ca]
- Alex Ovechkin threw a most excellent hit in the KHL and I already miss hockey. Sigh. [Backhand Shelf]
- The NHL claims its not looking for a system that saves its owners from themselves. But as Greg Wyshynski points out, if someone, somewhere doesn’t save the owners from themselves, than any deal that comes about will never been good enough come the next set of negotiations. [Puck Daddy]
- If you need something laugh about regarding the lockout, and trust me, we know how you feel, then the folks at Down Goes Brown have prepared a quiz that’s sadly funny cause it’s true. [Down Goes Brown]
- Well I was going to give you guys an awesome advertisement from the Allen Americans, but sadly the video has disappeared from YouTube and is not on their site. So instead, the official site takes you back to the days of Jon Klemm, Ladislav Nagy, Antti Miettinen and the always-awesome Jere Lehtinen for Mike Modano’s 500th goal.