NHL, NHLPA aren’t even in the same room
No new sessions set after mediators meet each side
NEW YORK — The latest round of NHL labour talks ended with the two sides not even getting into the same room with each other.
The players’ association and league negotiators met separately Wednesday with federal mediators in suburban New Jersey, holding discussions that didn’t immediately appear to have moved the sides any closer to a deal to save the hockey season.
There was hope going into Wednesday that negotiations could get back on track to the point they were last Thursday before talks fell apart.
When the NHL agreed last week to increase its makewhole offer of deferred payments from $211 million U.S. to $300 million it was part of a proposed package that required the union to agree on three non-negotiable points.
Instead, the players’ association accepted the raise in funds, but then made counterproposals on the issues the league stated had no wiggle room.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman then said the offer was being pulled from the table. However, mediators informed the union on Wednesday the proposal was still available, but it carried a take-it-or-leave it ultimatum.
“It wasn’t much of a decision,” said Brendan Morrison, one of 13 players to attend Wednesday’s talks. “I thought the gap would be closed much quicker, but it hasn’t come to fruition yet, so we have to keep working.”
All games through Dec. 30 have been cancelled, about 43 per cent of the season, along with the New Year’s Day Winter Classic and the All-Star game.
No new meetings have been scheduled.
Mediators rejoined the process Wednesday, at the request of the players’ association, after they were unable to move the sides any closer to a deal during two days of talks last month.
Whether they will stay involved beyond Wednesday remains to be seen.
“We did several different caucus meeting rooms and really there’s nothing new to report,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said Wednesday, the 88th day of the league’s lockout. “We don’t have a conclusion to the process.”
The union was expected to get back in touch with federal mediator Scot L. Beckenbaugh on Wednesday night and he was then supposed to reach out to the NHL.
After three straight days of talks between the sides ended last Thursday, union executive director Donald Fehr began the first of his two news conferences by proclaiming he believed the sides had agreements on such issues as actual dollars and then returned moments later to reveal the NHL rejected everything his side offered.
The 2004-05 season was lost completely before the players’ association accepted a deal that included a salary cap for the first time. While no major philosophical issues such as that exist in these negotiations, the sides still don’t appear to be ready to agree.
“I never thought the issues were as big as they were back in ’ 04-05,” Morrison said Wednesday. “Apparently, I was wrong.”
A 48-game season was played in 1995 after a lockout stretched into January. Bettman said he wouldn’t have a season shorter than that.
The NHL wants to limit player contracts to five years, seven for a club to re-sign its own player, and has elevated the issue to the highest level of importance.
The union countered with an offer of an eight-year maximum length with the variable in salary being no greater than a 25 per cent difference between the highestpaid year of the deal and the lowest.
The other sticking points the NHL demanded of the players are a 10-year term on the new agreement, with a mutual opt-out option after eight years, and no compliance buyouts or caps on escrow in the transition phase to the new structure. The union presented an offer of an eight-year deal, with a reopener after six.
No owners were with Bettman and Daly on the NHL side Wednesday, but the union had plenty of players in tow: Morrison, Craig Adams, Adrian Aucoin, Brad Boyes, Chris Campoli, Mathieu Darche, Shane Doan, Ron Hainsey, Jamal Mayers, Andy McDonald, Steve Montador, Douglas Murray and Daniel Winnik.