Morning Skate: Give and take

As we all wait for concrete news on the 2020-2021 season, it’s easy to forget a pretty basic fact: this is a business, and a whole bunch of people are losing money right now.

A report from the New York Post laid that bare, with Larry Brooks claiming that the league is asking the players to defer 13% of their 2020-2021 salary.

That 13% is on top of a 10% deferral that the NHLPA already agreed to over the summer.

Per Brooks, if the NHLPA agrees to this, the players “would be guaranteed 61.6 percent of their pay for 2020-21, with 23 percent due to be returned at later dates.”

Yikes!

You can certainly see why this isn’t exactly the most enticing offer from a player’s perspective: “Play the season for ²⁄₃ of your pay, and you’ll get the rest eventually!”

Brooks also confirmed that the league remains fixated on a Jan. 1, 2021 start, and reported that training camps could begin in just a few weeks.

Crazy times, folks.

Today’s highlight

Larry Brooks also covers the Rangers, which reminded me of this goal.

Tim Schaller not only scored a highlight-reel goal, but he also chased a future Hall-of-Fame goalie from the crease and got Brendan Smith placed on waivers post-game.

That’s a powerful goal.

Today’s discussion topic

I used to go to New York once (or so) a year. It was fun. This isn’t so much a discussion topic as waxing poetic for the pre-COVID days.