The National Post recalls that on Jan. 27, 1997, one week after he died of throat cancer, former Major League Baseball player Curt Flood was eulogized by the Rev. Jesse Jackson ("Baseball didn't change Curt Flood, Curt Flood changed baseball") and remembered in a letter of sympathy from then-U.S. President Bill Clinton that was read aloud at the service ("Every professional athlete in America ought to be here today"). Donald Fehr also spoke that day. Twenty-eight years earlier, Flood was a three-time all-star who became the centrepiece of a trade between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies. He refused to move, launching a challenge of baseball's reserve clause — which essentially tied players to one club, at the club's discretion — and ultimately helped usher free agency into the sport.
His name was raised again Thursday, with free agency included on a list of issues that separate the National Hockey League, its players' union, and a new collective bargaining agreement. It is not the main issue, but neither is it at the bottom of the list.
The NHL has proposed extending the amount of time players have to serve in the league before they can be eligible for unrestricted free agency, raising the bar to 10 years. As it stands, players are eligible at the age of 27, or after seven years of accrued service.
The union has not embraced that proposal. If a player arrives after playing in university, for example, it is not out of the realm of possibility they would not earn those 10 years of service until they are 33 or 34 years old. Adam Henrique, who played junior instead of college, just played his rookie season with the New Jersey Devils, and is 22 years old.
"What this amounts to is a return to the days of the C-Form and the reserve clause, where players' rights would be owned by the respective clubs for 10 years after they enter the NHL, with zero ability for the player to create any type of a market for his services," NHL player agent Allan Walsh said. "This is the battle Curt Flood fought in the 1960s."
The C-Form, he said, was basically hockey's version of the reserve clause in baseball.
In an email to the National Post, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the proposal was intended to "move to an 'NHL service' trigger for free agency as currently exists in all three of the other major professional sports leagues as opposed to an 'age' threshold."
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