CHL settles class action lawsuit

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The Canadian Hockey League dropped some unexpected news on Friday afternoon.

Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman was first to report that the CHL had settled its long lasting class action lawsuit over minimum wage payment. The lawsuit had been going on since 2014 when the controversial (and bizarre) CHL Players Association popped up.

According to Friedman, "each CHL team will be responsible for paying approximately $250,000 in damages. Some clubs can handle that easier than others, but it is not an insignificant amount at a time when the COVID-19 shutdown is wreaking havoc on businesses worldwide."

As Friedman mentioned, $250,000 is not an insignificant amount of money for many - if not most - CHL clubs. Settling this now is likely better than continuing on with the lawsuit, but still... this is going to hurt some teams. The lawsuit was settled before the COVD-19 pandemic shut the league down, making the financial implications of this situation even worse.

The CHL issued a statement on Friday, saying that "this settlement does not mean that we agree with the plaintiffs. It means that we wanted to end the lawsuits so we could continue to focus on being the best development league in hockey.

"All Canadian provincial governments reviewed the issue of player status and clarified in their legislation that our players are amateur student athletes and not employees covered by minimum wage or employment laws. While this ended the issue going forward, the lawsuits continued to be a distraction and would continue to damage the financial position of our teams by costing millions of dollars in legal fees for 5 to 10 more years. Millions of dollars that would pay lawyers and add nothing to our player experience or the strength of our teams."

Former Saint John Sea Dogs forward Lukas Walter, who spent two seasons with the WHL's Tri-City Americans before spending the 2013-14 campaign in the QMJHL, will receive $10,000 for his involvement in the lawsuit, according to documents posted by TSN's Rick Westhead.

“Minutes of settlement” from the Feb. 11 agreement. pic.twitter.com/PZmtl6LO2R

— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) May 15, 2020

According to Westhead, more than 4,200 players joined the class action.

How will $30M settlement be split?
Plaintiffs’ lawyers will ask court to approve fees of about $10M. Their expenses also come out of settlement.
There are > 4,200 players eligible for money but not all will file claim.
Those who do will get payout based on service time in CHL.

— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) May 15, 2020

It's also worth mentioning that this settlement comes at a time when the NCAA is moving towards allowing student athletes to make money off certain endorsement deals.