You have been bombarded with reasons for the escalation of player salaries, reasons that helped lead the NHL into this vacuum known as the lockout.

You have been told about the $15 million signing bonus the Rangers offered Joe Sakic in 1997.

You have been told about expansion fees. Atlanta, Nashville, Minnesota and Columbus pumped $320 million into owners' pockets in the mid-to-late 1990s, enabling some shopping beyond the usual means.

You have been told about the Joe Thornton contract in 1997, since known as the "Thornton model." The "model," notable for its attainable bonus clauses, made it possible for the Marian Gaboriks of the NHL to pocket multiple millions sooner than they could have in the past.

What no one has told you about is NHLPA SCORE. This is the computer system the NHL Players Association developed to educate agents, streamline data, exploit its legal rights and then outduel the teams and the league in negotiations.

NHLPA SCORE is intended solely for NHLPA agents. But one agent, who cooperated on the condition that he remain anonymous, gave the Star Tribune a detailed tour of his computer. Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHLPA, refused an interview request through his public relations chief, Jonathan Weatherdon, who accused this newspaper of "hacking" into the union's system.

But, what began as an exploration of how the NHLPA is using technology to launch salaries -- and whether this is legal and ethical -- opened another door.

The NHL, it seems, employs a similar computer system, making for an elaborate skill game between highly effective opponents.

Information overload

The gem within the SCORE system is something called the E-File. Any agent can click on the E-File link and navigate to a home page for each of the players he represents. The home page features nine options. The three most intriguing are: Player Profile, Marketplace Cluster and Searches.

• The Player Profile is a standardized form that each agent must complete for each of his clients during the season. The agent must explain: the client's free agent status; the player's potential argument in his upcoming negotiations; his team's potential argument; an analysis of his previous contract; his statistics; an analysis of his place in the marketplace; and a final recommendation. The recommendation targets how much the player should make.

• The NHLPA uses this information to group players in the Marketplace Cluster. When general managers make qualifying offers to players, those offers are posted. Agents are encouraged to post any additional club offers as they are made. Theoretically, each agent knows where the market stands as he negotiates for his client.

• The Searches option allows an agent to selectively use his client's statistics to produce a list of comparable players and their salaries.

Using Wild defenseman Nick Schultz as a guinea pig, our source punched in the following statistics: at least 60 games played, at least 10 points, at least a plus-5 plus-minus rating and at least 18 minutes played per game. We sought an average of the past three seasons. We limited our search to defensemen between age 18 and 25 as of July 1, 2004.

The program found this: Only five NHL defensemen met the criteria. They are Boston's Nick Boynton, San Jose's Brad Stuart and Scott Hannan, the Rangers' Karel Rachunek and the Wild's Schultz.

It is key to consider that Schultz was 21 as of July 1 and the others were 24 or 25. The search results led to these conclusions:

• There is no other defenseman in the NHL between 18 and 23 who has accomplished exactly what Schultz has.

• Schultz, who was tendered a $660,000 qualifying offer in June, seems to warrant more money. Stuart made $1.75 million last season, Boynton $1.55 million, Hannan $1.25 million and Rachunek $900,000.

There are caveats. For one, these statistics do not mean that Schultz is indisputably those players' equal or superior. For another, he is younger than they are and makes less for that reason. Yet, armed with statistical analysis such as this, a case could be made that Schultz warranted a healthy raise.

Whether Schultz's agent used these comparables in negotiations last summer is unknown. What is known is this: On Sept. 14, Schultz signed a three-year deal that could yield him as much as $3.5 million over the next three seasons.

Once that deal or any deal is registered with the NHLPA, it becomes a document available online for any agent to view, down to the last clauses. For example, a viewing of Jaromir Jagr's $11 million-per-season contract shows that he is paid $10 million per season with $1 million deferred at 1.5 percent per annum for 10 years.

It's all there to be seen, studied and applied by agents.

That said, the NHLPA is watching its agents. Any time an agent does statistical comparisons or looks up contracts, a clock ticks on access to that player's data. When the allotted 120 minutes run out, the agent must call the NHLPA and ask for additional time.

The league's system

NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly acknowledged that the league has operated similar data technology for about a decade. He called one program the contract tracking database and the other the salary arbitration database.

Just as agents can on SCORE, general managers can use the league's arbitration database to post offers during free agency. There is no obligation to do so, Daly said.

"It's an information-sharing network on restricted free agents," Daly said. "We give tools and ultimately the clubs all act independently."

The league, Daly said, does not "group players on the contract tracking database. ... Posting similar players, we don't do that."

Daly admitted that the union has "done a good job. We don't begrudge them that."

He did accuse the NHLPA of taking the arbitration process out of the agents' and players' hands.

"They [the union] decide which cases to take, which they don't," Daly said.

Daly said the NHLPA groups free agents with arbitration rights into "three buckets: guys they want in salary arbitration, guys who are better to negotiate and guys in a third bucket in terms of withholding [services]."

Translation: Daly claims the NHLPA chooses who goes to arbitration, who doesn't and who holds out. Again, Goodenow refused to comment for this story.

Daly admitted that he has never seen an NHLPA computer. But he knows how the system works. Tom Lynn, the Wild's assistant general manager, knows about SCORE and even considers its reach when negotiating.

Lynn said he'll tell an agent, "We'll agree to offer you this. But I don't want you to put this in [SCORE] before 2 p.m. when I announce this tomorrow."

He acknowledged that SCORE has been a key tool in propelling player pay.

The union is "faster than us," Lynn said. "They're better at it. Teams are competing. They're less likely to share offers."

Within the law

That topic -- teams sharing offers -- raises the red flag of collusion. But this is not colluding, in the legal sense.

"A league management can exchange information about players," said Minneapolis attorney Clark Griffith, who chairs the Sports Law Division of the American Bar Association. "It doesn't rise to the level of a crime until two or more teams agree" to act together to not sign someone or to price set.

Based on Griffith's legal explanation, the NHL probably could do more technologically to advise teams. But the NHL is a bit skittish. The union filed a grievance -- Daly said it was about six years ago -- contending that the league could not share data and offers.

"We had one hearing before an arbitrator," Daly said. "They couldn't articulate how it violated the CBA [collective bargaining agreement]. They essentially withdrew the grievance. It went away."

Even though that issue faded, Daly said, "there's been a sensitivity on our side toward coordinating negotiations because there may be certain obligations under the CBA that may be violated."

Whether the NHL is losing the technology battle is debatable. What is fair is to suggest that the union has greater legal latitude than the NHL when working together is the issue.

This conclusion reinforces one of hockey's maxims: Hockey is most effectively played as a team game.

"Without knowing what they've got," Daly concluded, "I don't think it's fair to say they've done a better job. It's not an exploitation of technology as much as they do more than we do in ... coordinating negotiations."