Veteran NHL players will get a tidy bonus along with their first paycheque of the season next month.
That’s because those that sat through the 2012-13 lockout are scheduled to receive the first of three transition payments negotiated into the collective bargaining agreement, Sportsnet has learned.
In a memo distributed to players and their agents last week, the NHLPA indicated that each player is entitled to $190,000 for every $1-million in base salary he was scheduled to earn in 2012-13. That money will be dispersed in three annual installments, the first of which arrives on Oct. 16.
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin, for example, will be paid $570,000 of the $1.71-million he is due as part of the program. The rest of his money will be doled out in October 2015 and October 2016.
Under the new CBA, the NHL committed $300-million in transition payments to help the players adjust to getting 50 percent of league revenues. Previously they had received 57 percent.
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