It’s Ratification(?) Friday, when NHL/NHLPA will ratify or reject the RTP protocols/CBA extension. It’s an all or nothing proposition. Accept it all — an effort to finish 2019-20, a 6-year framework to weather economic fallout of the pandemic, and labour peace — or reject it all.

The NHL Board of Governors has a scheduled 4 p.m. ET conference call to review the agreement(s) and a ratification vote.

The NHLPA full membership (all players) have been electronically voting on the agreement(s) since Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET. Voting closes at 6 p.m. ET tonight. A simple majority is required for the players to ratify.

If both the NHL B of G and the NHLPA rank-and-file vote to ratify the agreement(s), a formal announcement could come as early as this evening.

Will it be ratified? I’m not in the prediction business, but I would be surprised if either side rejected the agreement(s). Possible but unlikely, IMO.

That isn’t to say there is no opposition to it. There is. There will be NO votes. How many? Impossible to say.

On the NHL side, it’s virtually unheard of for the governors to vote against something that has been endorsed by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

On the player side, given the sheer number of players voting, there’s bound to be opposition. Some players don’t like the RTP. Some don’t like the CBA. Is the critical mass great enough to get to 51 per cent of the membership?

Agents, of course, don’t get a vote but they do counsel clients. Walsh is known to be more militant than some and he’s endorsed the agreement(s). Other agents, not all by any means but some, appear to echo that. Agents tell clients: Vote as you see fit. https://twitter.com/walsha/status/1281017109657473025?s=21 https://twitter.com/walsha/status/1281017109657473025

There are no doubt a lot of unhappy players. What’s to be happy about? The bottom has dropped out of their economy. In a hard-cap system with a 50-50 split of Hockey Related Revenue where HRR has been decimated, and may continue to be in the short term, it will be costly.

The real question is what happens if the players did reject the agreement(s)? I don’t believe it’s possible to reject this deal and immediately return to the bargaining table. It’s now or never for 2019-20 RTP and this CBA extension. It’s a package deal.

A rejection would mean no conclusion to 2019-20 season. No 2019-20 season would add to the loss of HRR, creating a further negative impact on players and owners. No RTP, no CBA extension, so there would be two more seasons under the existing CBA.

One of those two seasons, 2020-21, won’t start until later in the fall or perhaps winter and it’s unknown now whether it will include no fans or some fans and the negative impact on HRR quite conceivably will continue.

Depending on who you talk/whose numbers you use, there’s “talk” that starting next season without a CBA extension/transition rules could mean an NHL salary cap in $60M to $65M range with escrow rates north of 50 per cent. I don’t vouch for those #’s but forecasts would be dire.

Then there would be one more season under old CBA before it expires. And then what? Lockout? No one knows but it’s difficult to imagine it being pleasant/profitable. So it’s not just a matter of voting on a six-year agreement, it’s contemplating the alternative for the next two.