Filed under: Anaheim, General NHL, Ducks, NHL Gossip, NHL Rumors

Like my former FanHouse colleague, Greg Wyshynski, it isn’t terribly often that I find myself in agreement with Larry Brooks of the New York Post. But this morning, as he broke the news that the NHL has fined Anaheim Ducks defenseman $500,000 for not reporting to the team until midseason. As Brooks writes:

[T]he league has sought to punish Niedermayer by fining him approximately $500,000 of his $6.75M salary for missing training camp, unilaterally invoking Article 15.3 (f) of the CBA that reads, “For each day a Player does not report to Training Camp without his Club’s permission, his pay will be reduced by 1/275th of his annual . . . salary.”

As Brooks goes on to note, the decision to fine Niedermayer is all the more curious considering the fact that Anaheim General Manager Brian Burke gave the sure-fire first ballot Hall of Famer permission to take as much time as he liked to make up his mind to decided whether or not to return to the lineup. After all, the intent of this clause seems pretty clear in that it was designed to punish players who would attempt to hold out while under contract, and that clearly wasn’t the case with the Ducks and Niedermayer, where the back and forth was actually friendly.

So what’s the story behind the fine? According to Brooks, the league is afraid that Niedermayer’s example will set a precedent where other team’s might look to stash higher-salaried players off the ice to get some cap relief over the course of the season, only to bring them back to the lineup later when the total cap hit will be fractionally less.

Continue reading What’s the Why Behind the Nidermayer Fine?

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