Re: League looking at Hossa's contract....again
[quote name="phranchk"]It makes sense, but also the way article 26 is written it sounds like to me that they can still take it to a system arbitrator after the 60 days. If they do that then they can require the player and club to turn over a lot more evidence than they would have otherwise gathered if they have good cause to request it.
Basically it sounds like it would be a long, drawn out legal mess. I really don't think the league would in any way want to go down that road. It would be league suicide if they did.[/quote]
They can take it to the system arbitrator after 60 days. They can take it to the arbitrator in two different ways:
First, as part of the Investigation, they can ask the arbitrator to authorize discovery that may lead to the discovery of admissible evidence of circumvention (i.e. require that certain documents be turned over, such as emails, telephone records, etc.). However, in making its request, there must be "good cause shown" for the arbitrator to permit discovery. What constitutes "good cause" is in the arbitrator's discretion. In this instance, were the league to request it, an arbitrator may permit discovery (but may not). If he did, that would just be part of the investigative process.
Second, if the league, through the discovery process or otherwise, actually discovers new evidence of Circumvention that was not and should not have been known to it 60 days ago, and, after conferring with the involved parties, the parties dispute the allegation of Circumvention, either party can demand arbitration and the system arbitrator will hear the new evidence and make his decision.
The bottom line is that for an arbitrator to hear a league complaint that Hossa's contract constitutes circumvention, the league has to discover new facts that it did not and should not have known 60 days prior.
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