ECHL Players Now Have Upper Hand May 9, 1999

By Jack Corcoran
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

The landscape has changed dramatically.

The East Coast Hockey League had the lower minor-league market just about cornered four years ago.

Besides six teams in the the Central Hockey League and 15 others in the now-defunct Southern Hockey League and Colonial Hockey League, ECHL franchises had their pick of players who needed a place to continue their careers.

They were players on the wane after time in the upper minors, youngsters who just wanted a chance to keep their professional dreams alive after college or juniors headed to the ECHL.

And the league was a success.

The ECHL, which has grown from 21 to 27 teams since 1995-96, enjoyed a boom period, riding the momentum created by the NHL, which continued to push deep into the Sun Belt and broaden hockey's once-provincial appeal.

Big business has turned into much bigger business.

And the players, who once had to settle for life in the ECHL, can settle anywhere from Topeka, Kan., to Anchorage, Alaska, going to the highest bidder in any one of six other leagues -- and 69 franchises -- that have taken off following the ECHL's lead. That fact will be more important than ever when the four-year collective bargaining agreement between the ECHL and the Professional Hockey Players' Association expires at the end of the playoffs.

It is a unique situation.

Unlike labor squabbles that have occurred in major pro sports like the NBA or Major League Baseball, where players and owners knew they needed each other equally to rake in millions, the ECHL players are holding just about all the cards.

It has the makings of an interesting summer and, quite possibly, a quiet fall in ECHL cities.

"Time is a factor," PHPA executive director Larry Landon said. "We would like to get the deal done before the start of the season, but if we don't, we don't. That would change everything."

Indeed it would.

"With the other leagues out there, it gives us some great options," Landon said. "The window of opportunity will be open for the players in the event that it is not finalized before the start of the season. And the players know that."

The players also know that the four biggest leagues that compete for players with the ECHL -- the Central Hockey League, United Hockey League, Western Professional Hockey League and West Coast Hockey League -- all have higher salary caps.

ECHL teams had a salary cap of $8,250 per week this season, trailing the WPHL ($10,000), WCHL ($10,000), CHL ($9,000) and UHL ($8,800).

"It is surprising," Landon said. "The ECHL, in the hockey world, is looked upon as more successful and a better talent pool than those other leagues."

While Landon and the players concede that the benefit package in the outgoing CBA provided ECHL players with "far superior" insurance than the other leagues, whose players are not unionized, the cap will be a major issue.

But it will not be the only one.

Guaranteed contracts and much looser free-agency rules will be hot topics when the PHPA and the ECHL begin negotiations next month, hoping to avoid the league's first work stoppage.

"There are already two guaranteed contracts for the player/assistants, and the guys that are on NHL contracts are guaranteed," Tallahassee Tiger Sharks player representative Drew Palmer said. "But most of the guys are not guaranteed. That is the biggest issue right now."

Landon said free agency is almost nonexistent in the ECHL, which allows teams to retain a player's rights within the league without even having to match their salary from the previous season.

"The insurance and the contract is not year-round," Landon said, "yet the team wants to artificially look to the player and retain all his rights year round."

Landon said the PHPA presented a proposal to the league in January, but has yet to receive a counter offer.

"It's discouraging," Landon said, "but pretty typical of the way things have gone thus far with the league....I'm sure they will be contentious negotiations."

ECHL president Rick Adams said the league has to make sure it gets a deal that makes financial sense.

"The players have presented the league with various issues that they think will make it a better place for them to play," Adams said. "The league has to balance those with the needs to create an economic model that will work for the future."

But how long will that take?

"I'm not putting any timetable on the negotiations," Adams said. "We will negotiate in good faith through the balance of the summer with the objective to have a deal in place prior to the start of the 1999-2000 season."

One ECHL player, who wished to remain anonymous, said the league will have to give ground on free agency while the players will have to scale back the number of guaranteed contracts they are looking to secure.

"But it's going to be a war," he said. "There's no way around it."

Shark Bites

A source said this week that Tiger Sharks coach Jeff Brubaker contacted the Pittsburgh Penguins about their new top affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, which is searching for a coach as it prepares to join the American Hockey League next season.

Brubaker said Friday that he did inquire about the job.

"That is something that coaches at this level do all the time," Brubaker said. "Coaches at this level are always looking to join an NHL organization and work their way up from there."

Glenn Patrick, the brother of Pittsburgh general manager Craig Patrick, is believed to be the front-runner for the job.

Brubaker will have some unexpected free time on his hands this summer. Brubaker, who coached Orlando to the Roller Hockey International title three years ago, was supposed to lead the Florida Jackals of the RHI this summer. But the Miami franchise has suspended operations.

"It was something I would have done because it would have been a nice break for my wife and kids to go down and spend the summer at the beach," Brubaker said.

T-Sharks goalie Scott LaGrand, who is the assistant general manager and head coach of the Orlando Surge in Major League Roller Hockey, has signed Brent Cullaton to play for him this summer.

Cullaton had 61 points with the T-Sharks this season.

Cullaton, a former T-Shark was picked up by the Orlando Surge during the Major League Roller Hockey draft last month.

The T-Sharks are still waiting for the ECHL to rule on alleged salary-cap violations.

Around the ECHL

The ECHL will hold an expansion draft in either late June or early July for Trenton and Arkansas, which will join the league next season.

A dispersal draft will be held around the same time for the players who are without teams since Columbus, Miami and Chesapeake have opted to suspend operations for next season.

Origianally posted at 11:30 p.m. EST, Saturday, May 8, 1999