NHL players deserve hazard pay for outdoor hockey hassle

CALGARY, Alberta -- Let's say you're a loyal employee at Company X, which has asked you to work on a special project. So you break the normal routine, go beyond the usual duties, suffer through adverse conditions that your rivals do not and, in the end, make a butt-load of cash for your taskmasters.

And for this you get ... windburn and a few free toques?

According to the NHLPA and Calgary Flames GM Jay Feaster, the players who compete in the Winter Classic and the Heritage Classic do not directly receive any additional monetary compensation from the NHL.

"From the standpoint of the National Hockey League, it's just another regular-season hockey game. It's just in a different venue," said Feaster.

But it's not just another regular-season hockey game. It's a spectacle. It's a chance for the NHL to rope in sponsors and push product and increase the gate of a typical hockey game by over 20,000 customers. Factor in that these players are competing for points in the standings under conditions their rivals will not face, and it's anything but a typical regular-season game.

Yet they receive typical regular-season pay.

The players do benefit in a roundabout way from the ATM machines that are the outdoor Classics.

Jonathan Weatherdon of the NHLPA said that if the game brings in more revenue than a game at the Saddledome (and one hopes it would, for all the hassle), then "it will be a positive from an Hockey Related Revenues [HRR] standpoint, of which players share approximately 57 percent."

That would be all the players, of course, and not just the ones avoiding cracks in the ice and freezing their bums off in an open-air stadium.

Said the rest of the NHLPA's members: "Hey, thanks for the effort fellas ... ka-ching!"

I don't agree with Lambert that the Heritage Classic wasn't worth the trouble. I think both Classics are good for the NHL on an exposure and fan-relations level; the locals here ate up the Heritage Classic.

(OK, "drank it up" might be more appropriate.)

I also don't believe in stressing about the viability and popularity of these outdoor games until there are actually signs that they've become unviable or unpopular. They're here to stay; and if that's the case, then the NHLPA should ask for more of the action.

The players should get something from the NHL added to their base salary for the hassle; an off-the-books bonus that doesn't factor into the salary-cap calcuations. Maybe it's the NCAA fan in me who has grown tired of seeing student-athletes being told to savor the education as universities make tens of millions off their backs, but it doesn't seem fair that the players take the risk and the NHL gets the reward in these games.

Of course, while the NHL isn't offering them added dough, there may be some on-the-down-low appeasement from the teams to their players for the Classic; a little money on the board, as they say.

P.K. Subban of the Montreal Canadians was asked on Saturday if there were any steak dinners on the line for first goal scored or other achievements.

"I don't know. Maybe. We'll see," he said, with a wide smile.

Additional reporting by Scotty Wazz.

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