Ryan Kesler lashes out at NHL owners

Anaheim Ducks forward Ryan Kesler has made it clear that he feels owners of National Hockey League teams have been getting a free ride. Kesler made his comments is response to a Tweet made by Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers, who expressed concern with escrow, the revenue sharing system between NHL players and owners.

"It's about time," Kesler posted in response to Panarin bringing up his issues with escrow. "The owners need to understand we're done paying their debts. "You run your team into the ground it's on you. If there's a pandemic, it's on the owners. Figure it out, it's not a free ride."

Earlier Thursday night , Panarin had issued a lengthy statement expressing his eagerness to play in the NHL's 24-team playoffs during the summer months. However, he also stated that owners are protected through escrow during and after the NHL shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that their gain will be the players' loss.

"For nearly two decades, the Players have protected the owners' income with escrow, including throughout this pandemic crisis, even as owners' equity continues to grow exponentially," said Panarin, who is the second highest paid skater in the NHL with an $11.6 million average annual value. He's just around $900,000 a year less than Edmonton's Connor McDavid, who comes in at number one.

“It is time to fix the escrow. We as players cannot report to camp to resume play without already having an agreement in place. We are all in this together."

The NHL and NHLPA withhold a percentage of player salaries in escrow during the season as a mechanism to ensure teams and players achieve a 50-50 split of hockey related revenue, per the rules set in the current collective bargaining agreement. Several players have voiced concern in the last couple of years stating they rarely end up making the money that was included in their contracts, as the final split usually ends in the owners' favour. Also, the money can be held over a period of years before those in charge decide how it should be divided.

As we reported earlier this week, Fox News Midwest's Andy Strickland stated that there had been "lots of progress...made on a CBA extension with NHL and NHLPA. Essentially a six year extension. A MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) could be announced as soon as the 1st week of July."

The current CBA was ratified by the NHLPA membership on January 12th, 2013, concluding a four-month lockout by NHL owners. It runs ten years, expiring on September 15th, 2022. Both the NHLPA and the NHL had the option to opt-out of the deal in the eighth year of the Agreement, but both sides declined.

Kesler has an AAV of $6.875 milion. He did not play at all this season after undergoing hip surgery in May of 2019.

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