I'm still struggling to understand how one guy taking up a higher percentage of spendable cap, lowering the available money pool for the rest of the members is beneficial to the PA
Because it moves everyone else up, and then justifies the use of higher cap escalators. Mcdavid takes 15, so other players take 14, so other guys take 12, and so on until depth guys are making 2. Then the NHLPA uses the full escalator.
Everyone is going to get rekt by escrow anyways because that's a function of the projected HRR being set at the cap midpoint. If the CBA said, projected HRR was the cap ceiling, then there would be very little escrow, the issue is that's what, a 12M roll back per team? The current players are the most important represented class of the NHLPA, obviously they aren't going to allow that.
Instead the system is basically designed for the current class of players to try and extract as much as they can now, use the escalators, which push the ceiling further and result in more escrow, increase the cap to get more money to pay more escrow. At the end of the day, having a gross of 12m and paying 1m in escrow is less money than having a gross of 15m and paying 2m in escrow. Each player maximizing their money is good for all players because they all maximize their money. The guys that get f***ed over are the ones on elc and RFA, but theyre also a less important member of the union than the vets and UFAs. Such as it is with all unions, tenure matters.