We are now less than 24 hours out from the owners' proposal being handed to the PA and information in it is still coming out. The big news out of the proposal are a 50/50 split in HRR, changes in lengths of both ELC years and when a player can hit UFA status, and the closing of the loophole for frontloaded deals.

But interestingly enough, wrapped in amongst all of the players vs owners information are some interesting points that can be taken as punishment for owners and GM's own misgivings.

Via Pierre LeBrun:

The NHL offer proposes to make the salaries of minor-league players on NHL contracts (above a threshold of $105,000) count against the salary cap. This is to prevent teams from stashing players in the minors (think Wade Redden).

All existing NHL contracts which go longer than five years will be subject to new cap calculations, specifically those deals will count against a team's cap regardless of whether the player is still playing or not. My belief here is that this is the NHL's attempt at correcting the so-called "cheat deals" or back-diving deals -- like those of Marian Hossa or Roberto Luongo -- which carry bogus salaries at the end of deals to lower the cap hit.

From the beginning this lockout has had the feeling of not only a "PA vs owners" but "owners vs owners" with the discussions of revenue sharing and needing to close to loophole on the long term, frontloaded deals. It appears now that bad signings of the past have a possibility of being punished in the future.

s/t Cross Checks blog