from John Dietz of the Chicago Daily-Herald,

Jonathan Toews just wants to be paid what his contract says he should be paid.

Not a dollar more. Not a dollar less.

But that's not the way it works in the NHL because of a dirty little word -- among players anyway -- known as escrow.

Every year, players have a percentage of their salary deducted and placed into an account until the league determines how much of that pool must be paid to the owners to achieve a 50/50 revenue split.

In the early days of the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA), players actually received their escrow back, plus a bit more. But the rising salary cap has enabled owners to dole out heftier contracts -- and revenues have not kept up.

So players are losing in excess of 10 percent of their annual salaries.

Along with participation in the Olympics, escrow is a big reason the NHL Players' Association may opt out of the current CBA by Sept. 15.

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