Messages mixed on progress of talks

Union mildly optimistic but Penguins star Crosby finding it hard to be hopeful

Maybe it’s time a mediator stepped in and helped solve the NHL lockout. The NHL Players’ Association likes the sound of that idea.

“Couldn’t hurt,” Steve Fehr, the association’s special counsel, said Monday. “We’ve made it plain we’re open to the concept. The NHL isn’t terribly interested in it.”

With the NHLPA in concession mode on the biggest issues, such as salaries and contract rights, it’s perhaps no surprise they’d ask for outside help while the NHL probably thinks it’s doing a good enough job on its own of getting its costs down.

Fehr was speaking at Prime Time Sports at the Westin Harbour Castle, a two-day sports management conference run by Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke.

Burke was a speaker as well, but out of loyalty to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and fearing a fine for speaking out of turn, Burke did not talk about the lockout.

“This is killing me,” he joked at one point. “Not having anything to say is a very difficult position for me. I have plenty to say, and I will say it at the most appropriate time.”

Fehr, union head Donald Fehr’s brother, did have a few telling moments that leaned toward the hopeful side.

For one, Fehr said the two sides were finally very close on revenue sharing.

He also outlined the three key remaining areas of dispute. He said the players were willing “for the moment” to go to a 50-50 split on revenue sharing.

“The only question is over what period of time, and what’s the transition method,” said Fehr. “In some ways, we thought we were getting close in that area. . . . They came back with their own chart that showed the gap was much, much wider than we thought.”

On the issue of player contract rights — including five-year limits on contracts and a longer wait to unrestricted free agency — Fehr sounded hopeful again.

“It’s hard to believe anyone is going to drive the industry bus over the cliff over that,” said Fehr.

Then there’s the issue of how to deal with a lockout-shortened season in terms of paying players who have insisted all along that owners honour contracts.

“How does it affect your proposals this year in terms of who pays for what,” said Fehr.

“You might suspect a lot of angry players will say we didn’t start this fight, we didn’t want this fight, it was unnecessary, therefore it’s not really our problem.”

The league has cancelled games to the end of November, but there’s still hope a 70-game season could be played if a deal is reached in the next week or two.

Day-to-day accounts of progress in lockout talks read a lot like the stock exchange. Sometimes it’s up, sometimes it’s down. But it’s always moving forward.

Lately, pessimism has prevailed. Sidney Crosby sounded down Monday in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

“It’s just frustrating,” said Crosby. “You kind of hear the same things coming out of the meetings all the time. Just waiting to hear something new from their side. It’s almost to the point where you don’t want to ask because you know you’re going to get the same answer you got a week before.

“There’s no reason we can’t figure something out. I really want to be optimistic. It’s not easy right now.”

There were no formal talks Monday, and none announced for Tuesday.

Both sides may well have decided to back away to let Monday’s Hockey Hall of Fame inductions take centre stage.

“I don’t think it’s easy for the fan to understand,” said Burke.

“They don’t identify with the income bracket with either side. As important as the fans are, they’ve got to be patient.”