The NHL will be paying its players their final three paychecks despite the temporary halt of the season due to coronavirus.
Though the 2019-20 NHL season has been halted thanks to coronavirus concerns, the league will still pay their players during the work stoppage. On Friday, deputy commissioner Bill Daly told ESPN that the league will hand out the players’ final three paychecks of the season on time as scheduled.
NHL players will receive checks for pay periods of Feb. 24 to March 5, March 6 to March 23 and March 23 through the remainder of the regular season.
The NHL’s regular season was set to end on April 4, though the temporary suspension of the season has thrown the league into chaos over the last week. The hiatus was ultimately the right thing to do in the face of the NBA, MLS and MLB shuttering their doors as well on Thursday, but has raised many questions about how the NHL will proceed as the weeks go by.
At first it was unclear if NHL players would be paid due to the league’s collective bargaining agreement, as the CBA does contain a paragraph that allows teams to negotiate new salaries for players if the league “suspends, ceases or reduces operations” in-season because of “a state of war or other cause beyond the control of the [NHL] or of the [team].”
However, Daly stated that the league would do the right thing and pay their players according to their standard player contracts.
“This paragraph would authorize clubs to withhold payment of [players’] salary in the current circumstance, but we have advised clubs not to rely on [the] paragraph and to pay players and provide benefits in accordance with CBA and SPC,” Daly said to ESPN.
Not much is known about how the NHL will handle proceedings for the remainder of the regular season and into the Stanley Cup playoffs, but the league will at least pay their players during this stoppage time, which is good news.
In the meantime, the NHL is allowing players to return to their families in this time, with the hopes that informal skates in small groups could start within a week or so.
Follow FanSided NHL for more news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage about hockey in all forms throughout the entire 2019-20 NHL season and beyond.