Minnesota Wild winger Zach Parise displayed some major displeasure with the NHL's recent collective bargaining negotiations with the players union on Wednesday, as Michael Russo of the Star Tribune writes. Players are being asked to return a significant amount of guaranteed money to owners, otherwise a lockout will be put into effect.
While Parise insisted that he's optimistic about a deal getting done, he was adamant that the league's recent proposal is unacceptable:
I thought the first proposal was embarrassing. Embarrassing. If you look at it in the long run, in my opinion, it was a quick fix for [the owners], but I feel seven years down the road, it’s not addressing the problem and we’re going to be in the exact same spot where we are now. I could go on for a long time, but I thought it was a joke.
Parise became one of the league's highest-paid players when he signed with Minnesota in July for $98 million over 13 years, but the league appears to be pushing for ways that will allow for owners to recoup money that's already been contractually committed to players.
Considering that the players likely don't want to give back a significant portion of money that was already guaranteed to them in the past by owners, this will be an interesting situation to follow going forward.
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