NHL enters era of football-style

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-16  |     ONLINE EDITION

THE National Hockey League moved to a football-style system for signing out-of-contract players from Europe on Monday as an international transfer agreement expired.

The agreement, known as the PTA, cost NHL franchises a combined total of around US$11 million each year to sign between 50 and 60 young players from six European leagues affiliated to the International Ice Hockey Federation.

But the six nations – Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Slovakia and Switzerland – broke off the deal last December, and an agreement which should have run for three more years expired Sunday.

"The IIHF cannot negotiate an agreement if our stakeholders don't want one," governing body president Rene Fasel said in an e-mail statement.

As of today, NHL teams can sign an out-of-contract European player without paying the US$200,000 compensation fee that was agreed on more than a decade ago. Russia opted out of the agreement three years ago.

The change brings hockey into line with European club football, where out-of-contract players have moved freely between clubs without a transfer fee being paid since the Bosman ruling in 1995.

"This (the PTA) was probably the only transfer deal in any pro sport which guaranteed a club compensation for a player they no longer had any rights to," Fasel said.

"The IIHF tried to convince the European leagues and their clubs that an agreement is better than a situation where basically nothing is regulated."US$200,000 is more than zero dollars. And this is what the clubs are getting now for players who sign NHL contracts."

European clubs had wanted higher compensation fees because the American dollar has lost 32 per cent of its value since 2002, Fasel said.

The clubs worried that the quality of domestic leagues has been hurt by NHL teams luring away too many young players, who were then sent to the minor leagues to develop their game.