from Gord Stellick of CBC,

With the NHL proposal on the table and word of real talks happening at any moment, I thought I would throw some of my solutions in the mix to help negotiators on both sides move towards some form of an agreement.

Stanley Cup share

Let's start by moving backwards. When teams won the Stanley Cup back in the 1960's, they received a bonus of around $8,000 US at a time when they were making a salary of about $20,000. It was a significant financial boost for winning two playoff rounds.

Last year the Los Angeles Kings received a share of about $70,000 per player. So a player plays 82 regular season games for a $6-million salary and gets such an insignificant amount for the most important games of the year? This is one point that Don Fehr made and I think it is a no-brainer. Fans want to see more incentive for the players to deliver.

Playoff shares should be at least tripled for ALL teams, and these shares should not count against a cap.

Rookie salaries

Don Fehr always talks about how baseball has it right without a cap system. They also give first-year and second-year players basically no rights as far as their salaries are concerned. It is a hard and fast figure. Make it a hard and fast figure in the NHL. No bonuses except for a signing bonus. This current system of getting "tagged" for the possibility of achieving performance bonuses on an entry-level contract has played havoc with the cap system for some NHL teams.

read on for many more ideas...