David Franke, the Komets co-owner, general manager, and president of hockey operations, is hoping for a Christmas miracle.

Unless the ECHL and the Professional Hockey Players Association reach an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement by Friday, the Komets will have their season affected by a work stoppage for the first time in their 74-year history, including 37 years under the ownership of the Franke family.

“This whole thing feels like COVID again, and it’s been very stressful,” Franke said. “This is brand new to me, too. I have to rely on the information we get from the league and the league attorneys, our litigation attorneys. It’s been a very learning experience.”

“I’m bummed out about it. I’m not happy about it. Haven’t slept good all week.”

Players issue strike notice to ECHL

Negotiations for the CBA between the ECHL and PHPA have been ongoing since January. Franke said June is when meetings became more frequent, and the intensity of progress started to increase. Since the union members approved of a strike mandate Friday, the sides have met daily.

Franke supports the league’s offer, which was presented in part Monday in its first statement on the CBA negotiations since Nov. 14.

“As a league, I’ve got to be honest with you, I think we have made a very fair and a very generous offer to the players,” Franke said. “We’ve offered over a 16% increase in the salary cap from last year to this year. … We’ve added salary cap increases in future years, which would raise the salary cap by over 27% compared to where it is now. We think that’s very fair.

“We’re working on more days off. We’re addressing travel between back-to-back games. We’re working on the holiday and mid-season breaks.”

Tuesday, PHPA Executive Director Brian Ramsay issued an update, saying the union approached the ECHL with an offer to avoid missing games through mediation or arbitration.

“The ECHL responded within minutes, rejecting any interest in this solution and demanding ‘significant movement’ and concessions from the players,” Ramsay said in a statement. “This approach continues to align with the increased threats our membership has faced over the past 18 hours.”

The National Hockey League Players’ Association also released a statement Tuesday, putting their support behind the PHPA.

“With the PHPA’s strike date fast approaching, it is imperative that the ECHL abandon their current attempts to threaten players and return immediately to the bargaining table for good faith negotiations towards a fair and equitable collective agreement,” the NHLPA statement said.

Franke has a unique vantage point in the negotiations. While not directly involved in the negotiating, Franke is a member of the ECHL Board of Governors that is briefed consistently on the back-and-forth between the league and the PHPA. He also deals with players directly on a daily basis as the team’s general manager.

“They’re all part of the family,” Franke said. “I can separate being one of the owners of the team. I can separate that from interacting with the players or interacting with the team. I have good relationships with all the players on the team. I make sure to try to be a part of it and be involved in it, and help the coaches where I can. But this has been difficult.”

The Komets players and Franke have tried to separate the relationship from ongoing negotiations. PHPA player representative Anthony Petruzzelli played his 400th regular season game with the team last month and spoke positively about the relationship in a television interview with WPTA, Channel 21, on Tuesday.

“I realized where the PHPA has their views, and we have our views,” Franke said. “We treat our players very well here in Fort Wayne. We take care of them. I don’t think you’ll have a player to say a bad word about us. We treat them professionally. We treat them courteously, and we take care of them.”

Potential fallout

The timing of the strike isn’t good for anyone, but it hits home in particular for the Komets as they are scheduled to play three straight games at home starting on Friday, plus another game on New Year’s Eve. Franke said holiday games can be the difference between teams “making it and not making it.”

Komets goalie Samuel Jonsson adjusting to life, hockey in America

He believes the Komets will be able to withstand a longer strike. Other teams might not.

“Would it put some teams out of business? It could,” Franke said. “I’m hoping that this will get resolved shortly, and we won’t have to address that situation. We’re not in a situation where we would go out or anything like that. It’s a financial burden, but it’s something we’re prepared to do because we feel positive about our offer.”

For players, there’d be more than salary lost. Under the current CBA, which the league has functioned under since it expired June 30, teams provide and cover the cost for housing, utility bills, internet bills, medical insurance and dental insurance.

“The housing, the contract, the salary, all that would go away. Health insurance, everything,” Franke said.

“They could be asked to pay for their housing so they can stay in it, and they can pay for it. If we have a player who’s on IR, he stays in his house. He doesn’t get evicted or anything like that. He’s still covered with everything because he’s on the IR.”

The league hasn’t acknowledged the potential cancellation of games. In fact, hockey historian and author Andrew Zadarnowski reported that the league was considering using players from independent minor leagues like the SPHL and the Federal Prospects Hockey League to play scheduled games.

Franke confirmed that teams were looking into replacements, but added that it’s all predicated on whether the games get played.

“We’ve definitely, and I think other teams in the league are looking at it too, about replacement players,” Franke said. “We’ve started looking, but that’s all supposition if we don’t play. If we don’t play, it’s incumbent upon the league and the union to iron out an agreement that’s fair for everybody.”

The Komets’ next game is at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Memorial Coliseum against the Indy Fuel, one of 13 planned after the holiday break.

The team told WFFT Fox 55 that, as of Tuesday night, they would continue to operate under the assumption that the game against their in-state rival will happen.