NHL Lockout Update: Going to Court

Well, it finally happened. The NHL and NHLPA are going to court. Here's a breakdown of the events of the last few days:

- The NHLPA decided to have the players vote on whether or not to dissolve the union. Two-thirds of the players must vote in favor of filing a disclaimer of interest, which would dissolve the union. Should the vote pass, the union would have until January 2 to actually go through with filing the disclaimer of interest. If they do, the players would be open to file anti-trust lawsuits against the league. Voting started today, and for some reason ends on Thursday. No rush, the season isn't in jeopardy or anything.

-The NHL, anticipating this move by the union, filed a class-action complaint, which asks the federal courts to affirm the legality of the lockout. This would protect the league from anti-trust lawsuits should the players vote for a disclaimer of interest.

-NHLPA released a statement in which they say the league is over stepping their bounds by attempting to take away the players right to decide whether or not to be represented by a union. The league's argument, stated in their 43 page complaint to the courts, is that the players are only seeking a disclaimer of interest as a negotiating tactic, with the intention of "extracting more favorable terms and conditions of employment."

There are a lot of possible outcomes to this, and rather than explaining it all in a long, confusing paragraph, I decided to just make a flowchart. I like flowcharts.

Click image to enlarge.

As you can see from the flowchart above, no one knows what the hell is going to happen. There are so many possible scenarios that it's impossible to predict at this point. These negotiations have a tendency to take completely unexpected turns, so expect the final outcome to look nothing like any of the paths on the chart above.

You'll notice the colors that I used in my chart are consistent with the holiday season. Merry Christmas, hockey's screwed!

Photo credits: picasawebs.google.com