any League Year during which a player was on a club's playing roster for 40 (30 if the player is a goalie) or more regular season NHL games. If the player missed games due to a hockey-related injury incurred while on a club's playing roster, those games shall count as games played for purposes of calculating an accrued season but only during the League Year in which the injury occurred and a maximum of one additional season

a person authorized to act for a player; one entrusted with negotiating a player's contract

an impartial person authorized to hear and resolve specified disputes related to the Collective Bargaining Agreement between a player and a club

the League average player salary in any given League Year

money paid to an athlete for signing a contract or achieving specified performances during the length of the contract

There are two separate methods of receiving equalization payments from the League. Each Canadian-based club must sell 13,000 season tickets or achieve an advertising inventory set by the League. The plan covers four of the six Canadian franchises: Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. Because they are financially sound and sell out all home games, Toronto and Montreal are not eligible. If a franchise meets the 13,000 season ticket total then the club is entitled to a cash handout, which ranges from $2.2 M to $2.7M (US). The agreement was extended as of December 2001 through to the end of the current NHL CBA.
[Source: Frank Brown, V.P. Media Relations, NHL]

You can also receive League money by achieving a League percentage of total marketing revenues from your inventory, e.g. rinkboards and other advertising. There is no hard date for the teams to reach the mark -- the League monitors a team's progress.
[Source: Peter Hanlon, Director Communications, Calgary Flames]

how many tickets are being sold (attendance) verses the actual capacity of the arena

an arrangement negotiated between the players union and the owners that sets forth the rights and obligations of the players, the teams and the League

a draft pick awarded to a club that loses its draft rights to an unsigned rookie drafted in the first round of the Entry Draft who is again eligible for the Entry Draft or becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent

Selection shall be the same numerical choice in the second round in the Entry Draft immediately following the date the Club loses such rights [ex: if a club cannot sign the third pick in the first round, it will receive the third pick in the second round as compensation.]

a team in the National Hockey League

a term used only by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to describe what many feel is a salary cap (particularly the NHLPA); he describes it as, "knowing what the relationship between your revenues and expenses will be."

an organized selection process used by NHL teams for choosing rookie athletes for their rosters

the right of any club to receive draft picks from another club to compensate the club for the loss of a restricted free agent

a set of controls within the CBA created to slow down or curb runaway salaries; it was hoped that these controls on the non-tax issues would be enough to eliminate the need for a cap

the NHL's annual draft of rookie players

the system into which rookies are drafted and play their first contract for a maximum three years under an established salary cap

a player who is under 31 and out of the entry-level system becomes a restricted free agent

a proposed a payroll tax of five per cent and gate receipt tax of five per cent on the League's top 16 teams (based on their revenues) put forth by the NHLPA in the 1994 negotiations

represents the franchise at league meetings and voting situations

a dispute between a player and a club or the League concerning individual contract or CBA provisions. Filing a grievance is a legally guaranteed right of the player, so long as the grievance has merit. He cannot be discriminated against for filing a claim.

a maximum salary dollar figure that cannot be exceeded

Large market teams, [e.g. New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs] because they are located in big cities, draw more fans to their games, attract more viewers to their telecasts and make more money.

the period from July 1 of one year through and including June 30 of the following year, or such other one-year period to which the NHL and the NHLPA may agree

Like in baseball, this term is commonly used to refer to a payroll tax, a levy against teams who spend more than a league limit. However, in previous CBA negotiations, it often was used in revenue-sharing proposals that combined a payroll tax with redistribution of profits from regular-season and playoff gate receipts to small-market teams.

The National Hockey League Players' Association is a labour union whose members are the players of the NHL and whose mandate is to represent their interests to ownership and management. Headquartered in Toronto, the NHLPA has a staff of approximately 50 employees who work in such varied disciplines as labour law, product licensing and community relations.

bonuses individually negotiated by a player for meeting or exceeding certain criteria EX: League Awards such as the Hart, Art Ross, Lady Byng trophies, goals scored, penalty killing, plus minus rating, etc.

players under contract to a club who, during the NHL regular season or playoffs, are specifically assigned to such club, or who are assigned temporarily to a club in the minors (AHL, ECHL) for conditioning purposes in accordance with the terms of the CBA. During training camp, a player shall be deemed on the club's playing roster only if he had been on the club's roster after the trading deadline in the preceding season on other than an emergency recall basis

an offer made to a restricted free agent by his current club when his contract expires. It is a minimum one-year contract subject to arbitration that preserves the right to match and draft pick compensation. The offer must be 110 per cent of the prior year's salary if the player is earning the League average or less. Players earning more than the League average must be offered 100 per cent of their prior year's salary. If a player is aged 26 or older, the offer is a set amount that is indexed annually, based on the League average salary. (For the first two years of the current CBA it was set at $400,000 and it has gone up since then.)

a player whose contract has expired but who is still subject to a Right of First Refusal and/or Draft Choice Compensation in favour of his prior club

essentially, the big market teams channelling a percentage of their profits to the small market teams to achieve parity and ensure the survival of the smaller market franchises

the right of a club to retain the services of certain players by matching offers made to those players

a player who has never signed a professional contract

a maximum dollar amount of aggregate compensation that individual teams may pay their players during a specific time period

These are teams based out of cities with a small population who therefore draw fewer fans to their games. In turn, this hurts revenue and ratings. Ex: Pittsburgh, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Tampa Bay

a salary cap of a specific dollar figure, which can be circumvented and exceeded by a team through certain exemptions. (The NBA has a soft cap that allows disabled players exemptions, the Larry Bird rule, rookie exemptions, minimum player salary exemptions)

if a player is up with an NHL team, he gets paid NHL scale; players are paid less if they are demoted to a farm team (there is a capped minor league scale)

a player who has either never signed a contract or whose contract has expired or has been terminated or bought out by a club and who is not subject to any exclusive negotiating rights, right of first refusal or Draft Choice Compensation; or a player who becomes an unrestricted free agent as a result of a club exercising its walkaway rights