NHL Labor Issues: Why It's Important for the Players to Fight for a 'Fair' Deal

The NHL players need to fight for a "fair" deal because after making significant concessions during the last lockout, it's important that they make sure their financial future is strong since the league is enjoying record revenues.

The players need to make sure the new CBA allows themselves, and future NHL players, the opportunity to make the most money possible. After looking at the owners' initial proposal, the players will have to fight hard to earn themselves the best deal.

Since the players get 57 percent of hockey-related revenue under the current CBA, there's no way they should accept anything less than 50 percent this time. Since revenues are likely to increase over time, 50 percent could definitely be a fair share down the road, but going down to 46 percent, which is what the owners first proposed, is not fair for the players at all.

With the NHL making $3.3 billion in revenue during the 2011-12 season and getting significant money from its television deal with NBC, there's no excuse for the players to not fight for their fair share of the revenue pie. It's a pie that has the potential to keep getting bigger and bigger in the near future.

Another key part of the players' challenge to get a fair deal is the issue of contracts, free agency and arbitration. The owners also made four bold demands regarding all of these, each of which are insanely unfair to the players.

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3-contracts limites to 5 years 4-no more salary arbitration. 5- entry-level contract 5 years instead of 3.

— Renaud P Lavoie (@RenLavoieRDS) July 14, 2012"

It's important for the players to not accept term limits. Since contracts are guaranteed, the more years they sign for, the more financial security the players will have. The "lifetime" contracts of 10-plus years that we see given these days aren't good for the league, but for the players, they are fantastic.

Lavoie also reported that the owners want players to have 10 years of NHL service before reaching UFA status. There is no way the players would agree to this since unrestricted free agency is obviously where all the most lucrative contracts are.

After seeing players such as Scott Hartnell, Taylor Hall and Jeff Skinner all receive contracts longer than five years this summer, the players should laugh at the owners and fight to keep players contracts they way they are now.

If the owners are willing to give young players like Hall and Skinner around $6 million per season for six or seven years, then the players should not compromise for anything less than term limits of seven years.

Too many of the league's owners have not been able to prevent themselves from handing out stupid contracts and making other financial decisions that have hurt the health of their teams. The players cannot give up too much during these negotiations because several of these owners don't learn from their mistakes.

It's important that the NHLPA gets a fair deal in the current labor dispute because they cannot afford to not receive enough of the revenue pie as the game continues to grow financially.

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Nicholas Goss is an NHL Lead Writer at Bleacher Report. He was also the organization's on-site reporter for the 2011 Stanley Cup Final in Boston. Follow him on Twitter.