Thread: Concussions and the CBA

So this is kinda kneejerk and kinda not. Seriously though I hope both the league and the players association are willing to talk about some pretty serious restructuring on salary caps and roster rules concerning the effect that concussions are having on the game. Quite frankly injuries with indeterminate recovery times have got to be messing everyone up. It's like an epidemic of groin and hamstrings except everyone's taking them seriously because they can in fact end careers and the rest of the players life is seriously effected. Syd's one example but they need to consider roster exemptions to bring a player back from injury and see if they are in fact ready to go. At the very least they may need to modify the use of the injured reserve concept.
If there's any articles out there about this please let me know,

Actually, when I read the title of your post I was worried it was going to be let's legislate concussions out of the game nonsense, but you actually bring up some good questions. The only concern I have is that if you head down that road you open the door for teams to void contracts of players who suffer career ending injuries, which is entirely unacceptable. So yeah, I am curious how they are going to proceed with this growing problem too.

Thats the first inevitable conclusion I came to as well in terms of managing a salary cap is allowing voiding of contracts. Without some kind of insurance program I don't think teams can accept being on the hook for players salaries that are not playing even if they are given roster exemptions for them. Plus if a team loses big stars it still needs those contracts to count against the books to some degree or else they could fall below the minimum without having the cashflow to cover it (or roster space, you can replace a 6 million dollar man with 3 2 million dollar guys, but not if there's no room on the roster).
Both sides need to really expand on items like the LTIR list and accept the fact that if players health is going to be respected there does have to be legitimate salary maneuverability.

It is scary how many concussions there are currently. Seems like every day brings a new incident. Crosby, Richards, Giroux, Pronger, Skinner, Pitkanen, Michalek, and not to mention Savard just to mention a few. I honestly don't think there are more today than there were 20 years ago. I just think the league and teams are more aware of the seriousness so they have the players checked frequently rather than letting them "tough it out". Sadly, I don't see any way of getting rid of this problem.

Originally Posted by NastiMarvasti

It is scary how many concussions there are currently. Seems like every day brings a new incident. Crosby, Richards, Giroux, Pronger, Skinner, Pitkanen, Michalek, and not to mention Savard just to mention a few. I honestly don't think there are more today than there were 20 years ago. I just think the league and teams are more aware of the seriousness so they have the players checked frequently rather than letting them "tough it out". Sadly, I don't see any way of getting rid of this problem.

It's not a matter of getting rid of concussions, it's a matter of allowing GM's the ability to deal with it before they have 10 guys on IR and have to ice a squad of 13 players because that's all the rules will allow them to do.

I don't see how concussions will ever be stopped. As long as there's ice to fall onto, as long as there's boards to run into, they can scream abt the fighting and possibly control those but, ice and boards can't be softened.

Originally Posted by taz42

I don't see how concussions will ever be stopped. As long as there's ice to fall onto, as long as there's boards to run into, they can scream abt the fighting and possibly control those but, ice and boards can't be softened.

No but they could widen the rinks and change the equipment. Of course, that would cut into their profits so that won't happen. . .

Originally Posted by SmytheKing

No but they could widen the rinks and change the equipment. Of course, that would cut into their profits so that won't happen. . .

I know the quest for a safer helmet continues but, how about making these guys tighten those helmet straps. Falling on the ice and seeing helmets fly off sure isn't helping this concussion situation.

Originally Posted by SmytheKing

No but they could widen the rinks and change the equipment. Of course, that would cut into their profits so that won't happen. . .

I wish they would look at softer pads, if possible