Mediation fails, so can owners, players find a way?

After arriving at another dead end in negotiations, the NHL and NHL Players’ Association emerged from two days of mediation with a new direction to consider.

Commissioner Gary Bettman proposed Thursday that the leadership from both sides step aside for the next bargaining session, leaving a group of owners and players to try to break the stalemate. The specific parameters of the meeting weren’t set out and the NHLPA said it would take the offer to its executive board and negotiating committee for consideration.

Bettman’s proposal came with the sides unable to bridge a gap in collective bargaining negotiations despite sitting through a series of sessions with U.S. federal mediators this week.

“After spending several hours with both sides over two days, the presiding mediators concluded that the parties remained far apart, and that no progress toward a resolution could be made through further mediation at this point in time,” deputy commissioner Bill Daly said Thursday in a statement. “We are disappointed that the mediation process was not successful.”

Mediation was also used on a couple of occasions during the NHL’s labour dispute in 2004-05 and didn’t produce any discernible progress. According to NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, the sides may sit down with representatives from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service again in the future.

“The mediators informed the parties that they did not think it was productive to continue the discussions further today,” said Fehr. “The mediators indicated that they would stay in contact with the league and the NHLPA, and would call the parties back together when they thought the time was right.”

Progress has remained elusive for the league and union despite a variety of negotiation settings over the last several months. They’ve tried everything from large groups to the Big Four (Bettman, Daly, Donald Fehr and NHLPA special counsel Steve Fehr) to a private 1-on-1 session between the deputies without success.

There was a brief hint of optimism last week when the union tabled a new offer that Donald Fehr felt brought the sides within $182 million over five years. However, a series of player contract issues remain unresolved and the terms of negotiations are bound to change the longer the lockout drags out. On Thursday evening, Daly confirmed that the league’s Nov. 8 offer remained on the table.

The sides have each proposed a 50-50 split of revenues, but remain separated on payments to be made outside the system to help ease the transition from a deal that saw players receive 57 per cent.