For Jason Dickinson, communication has been vital in the nearly four months since the NHL suspended its season due to COVID-19 concerns.
As the Stars’ NHLPA player representative, Dickinson has been on every call with the player’s association executive board. He’s been responsible for coordinating with alternate player rep Ben Bishop on topics to discuss, and they’ve been relaying information to the rest of their teammates. All during his first full season as the team’s player rep.
“I’m learning on every call, basically,” Dickinson said. “There’s little things that I didn’t really understand about the CBA [collective bargaining agreement] or what’s covered where, and whose share it comes out of. Just learning all this business talk, and contract talk, not just player contracts, but the CBA itself. All this stuff was way over my head before.”
The NHL and NHLPA are expected to reach an agreement soon that would solidify the league’s return to play and also extend the current CBA with some changes. According to Sportsnet, the agreement would keep the salary cap at $81.5 million next season, limit escrow in upcoming seasons, and allow for NHL players to participate in the Olympics in both 2022 and 2026.
As for returning to play, players would be free to opt out of playing without a penalty (it appears Stars defenseman Roman Polak will not play) and testing for coronavirus would take place daily, according to Sportsnet. Multiple reports have said that the two hubs cities will be Edmonton and Toronto.
For Dickinson, it’s been his job to hear his teammates concerns and also provide information about return-to-play scenarios.
“A lot of the return-to-play stuff can’t still be figured out until the cities are picked,” Dickinson said. “We can come up with tentative plans: This is what we want to do, this is what we hope and this is what we agreed on for now. If local governments don’t give us the go ahead to do anything like that, then we don’t have a plan.
“I’d say the main [issues] are families and entertainment. Guys don’t want to be stuck in their hotel rooms. They don’t want to have to sit there all day, every day and just basically be farm animals herded to the rink and then herded back to the hotel.”
Some Stars will be put in a tough position when they depart for the hub city. During the league’s suspension, Taylor Fedun and Justin Dowling became first-time fathers. Bishop’s wife, Andrea, gave birth to the couple’s second child.
Dickinson said he has talked with teammates about not being able to see their families.
“Even me and my fiancé, of course I’d love to spend the time with her, but at the same time, it’s a couple months,” Dickinson said. “If that’s really the only thing we can’t get to happen, we can survive. For the guys with kids and newborns, it’s a tough time because you’re going to be locked away for a few months. Sure, it doesn’t sound like it’s all that bad, but we didn’t really sign up for that, so I get why guys are upset or would be concerned about not being able to spend time with their kids, especially the newborns. They grow up so quickly in the first couple months.
“They’re telling me ‘I can’t believe what my kid’s going to be like when we get back from all this.’ So, I get it for them. It’s crazy to think you have to spend all this time away from them right now, but at the end of the day, it’s a few months at most. I don’t think it’s going to be a deal breaker, necessarily, but we also want to be able to spend some time [with family].”
Moving forward, the NHLPA will present the deal with the league to the executive board. Dickinson said the Stars would hold a team call to talk through it. Then the 31-member executive board would vote on the agreement. If passed, every player would vote with a secret ballot.
The Stars are scheduled to open training camp Friday, but reports have suggested camp could be pushed back to July 13.
