New York Rangers superstar Artemi Panarin just dropped a bombshell statement on his Instagram and Twitter accounts. The Blueshirts leading scorer and potential Hart Trophy candidate wrote, “It is time to fix the escrow.” He then proceeded to ask his fellow NHLers to hold out of camp until it’s done.
Panarin’s statement continued, “We as players cannot report to camp to resume play without already having an agreement in place.”
In essence, he is asking for all his fellow players to hold out until the NHL’s escrow system is more equitable for the players. So does this mean there is another hurdle to overcome aside from COVID-19? That is going to fall on Donald Fehr and the NHLPA.
According to reports from Larry Brooks and others, there will be a vote on Return to Play protocols, hub cities, and a CBA extension. The proposal has a cap on escrow which is not linked to a flat cap ceiling of $83M over the the next three seasons.
If true, that would mean an end to the strict, linked, 50-50 percentage split of hockey-related revenue between the players and the owners. It is unknown whether the owners would protect their 50-50 over the full term of the deal even as opposed to on a yearly basis. It is also unknown just what accommodations the union has made in order to get the cap, even if on a temporary basis.
So it seems that Panarin’s statement comes on the heels of this news. Apparently, he doesn’t like what he is voting on and is expressing what he’d like his fellow players to do. Things just got a whole lot more interesting.
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