Paul Chiasson / AP file

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was one of the winners from the lockout, NBCSports.com contributor Kevin Dupont says.

Loser: other players, other leagues
As a group, pro athletes never have taken this kind of hit. Once the realization hits Major League Baseball, NFL and NBA owners that, yes, the players can be broken like kindling, they'll ultimately force the issue, too.

Will it be soon? Not likely, because of years left on other CBAs.

But the NHL model, and the dramatic rollback in player salaries that it produced, will have a ripple effect in all other pro leagues for decades to come.

Winner: front-office wannabes
GMs, if they haven't already prepared for it, will realize that they'll have to make a "capologist" hire. It's hard enough, in the GM job, to figure out the most important part of the job — i.e., identifying the true prospects from the fakers.

But in the capped NHL, it will be at least of equal importance to figure out how to construct a talented roster and have it all work out on the budget sheet. WANTED: 30 math whizzes to help streamline NHL operations (knowledge of skating and stickhandling not necessary ... Zamboni driver's license a must!)

Loser: player agents
Uh, fellas, the golden goose is dead.

There's a lot less money for everyone, which means the gross-dollar take of player reps has to drop. Sure, they can try to boost their percentages to recoup some of the loss, but players will be quick to boot one agent charging 4 percent for another charging 2 percent. Ah, open-market competition.

Agents won't go away, but they won't be as crucial to the process. Players soon will find out how they're slotted, in terms of pay scale, in the new system. Once they figure that out, they might cut their own deals.

Winner: small-market teams
The likes of Nashville, Edmonton, Pittsburgh and Buffalo no longer have to worry about the likes of Colorado, Detroit, Philadelphia and the Rangers going wild with the payroll.

No doubt, big-city teams will carry larger payrolls, but the difference will be a total of $10 million or $15 million a year, and not $40 million or $50 million.

Payroll parity doesn't necessarily guarantee anything, other than the fact that no team should be able to spend its way out of business anymore.

But, at least in theory, it also should embolden the small fries to believe they can compete with the big guys.

Loser: Sidney Crosby
Widely considered to be the future face of the NHL, Crosby is the most highly touted prospect  since Mario Lemieux. The newest Penguin already has lucrative endorsement deals in place with Reebok and Gatorade.

In the Old World NHL, Crosby would have signed an entry level deal worth around $1.2 million a year, and he conceivably could have banked another $3 million or $4 million in annual bonuses that became de rigeur in ’97 when the Bruins signed first-round picks Joe Thornton and Sergei Samsonov. If Crosby put up phenomenal numbers off the hop, he might have banked $15 million across his first three seasons.

The new CBA's entry-level system, with base pay trimmed back by at least one-third and bonuses severely limited, likely won't allow Crosby to make half that amount in his first three seasons.  On the other hand, if he does make, say, $7.5 million, that will be $7.2 million more than Bourque made in his first three seasons.

True, with the new CBA, the money ain't what it used to be — but everyone focuses on where these guys fell from. It's easy to forget where they were, not all that long ago.

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