from Travis Yost of TSN,

If you needed any evidence that another NHL lockout might be on the horizon, look no further than the type of free agent contracts executed during the 2015-2016 off-season.

Admittedly, this is attempting to project the future, the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) is fully binding until September of 2019, at which time both the NHL and NHLPA will decide if they want to “opt out” of the contract. Under this scenario, the first season threatened would be 2020-21 campaign. Considering the lack of labour peace the sport has historically experienced, cynics would point out that such opt-out clauses essentially mean that there are just a handful of seasons left before the situation gets dicey.

It’s that type of forward thinking though that has created a lot of these quirky contracts signed this summer by players such as Steven Stamkos, Andrew Ladd, Loui Eriksson, and a number of other high-end talents these past few weeks. If you sift through the details, these contracts are comprised largely of money paid by way of signing bonuses as opposed to strictly annual salaries.

There are two notable mechanisms that signing bonus-laden contracts effect on teams. The first is that the higher the signing bonus amount, the more difficult it is to buy contracts out. Despite general managers stipulating to these contracts all of the time, we have seen this become a point of cap consternation for a number of teams, most notably with the Toronto Maple Leafs and David Clarkson’s deal a couple of seasons ago.

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