AHL, PHPA agree to terms on new CBA
The American Hockey League (AHL) and the Professional Hockey Players’ Association (PHPA) tentatively agreed to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), as was announced Wednesday.
The @PHPA and @TheAHL announced today that they have agreed to terms on a tentative new collective bargaining agreement.
The proposed agreement is subject to ratification by the PHPA’s American Hockey League membership and approval by the AHL Board of Governors.
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The tentatively agreed upon terms must still be ratified by the AHL members of the PHPA and approved by the AHL’s Board of Governors. The details of the tentatively agreed upon CBA have yet to be reported.
This news come after the PHPA and the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) ratified a new CBA just before the new year, putting an end to a brief two-day strike that caused 41 games to be postponed. The PHPA is the labor union that represents the players of the AHL and the ECHL.
The last CBA between the AHL and PHPA was ratified in October of 2019. It was originally scheduled to last through August of 2024, but was extended a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2025-26 AHL season has been played so far while negotiations for the new CBA were ongoing.
In the 2024-25 season under the last CBA, the minimum salary for AHL players was $52,725 U.S. Players on loan to the AHL from a lesser league had a minimum salary of $41,525 U.S. for American clubs, or $54,100 CDN for Canadian clubs, to be pro-rated daily. There was also an assistance program for AHL players, branded as REDLINE, under the last CBA. It remains to be seen how much these and other important details will change under the new CBA.
The PHPA was founded in 1967. Along with the AHL and ECHL, the union has represented the players of the now-defunct Western Hockey League (WHL), Central Hockey League (CHL), and International Hockey League (IHL). It has represented the players of the AHL since 1968, and the players of the ECHL since 1995.