- Pierre LeBrun via twitter: Both sides touched base last night, but not known if they will agree to resume official CBA talks.
- Dan Rosen via twitter: (late afternoon yesterday) Bill Daly said there are no formal bargaining sessions scheduled. Said he hoped negotiations could resume this week.
- Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: The NHL and NHLPA met yesterday to go over last years HRR.
“No bargaining scheduled, but we have kept in close contact,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told a handful of media outside the league’s Toronto offices. “It’s fair to say both sides are working, but they’re working internally right now.”
“Obviously, we’ve got to talk before you can get a deal, so I think it’s important to get the talks going again,” Daly said. “But you also have to have something to say. I think it’s fair to say we feel like we need to hear from the players’ association in a meaningful way because I don’t think that they’ve really moved off their initial proposal, which was made more than a month ago now.”
They’ve canceled all the pre-season games, and may have to cancel more.
“Obviously, we’re going to have to look as the week goes along as to where we are on the calendar and where we are in bargaining and what that means logistically in terms of concluding a deal and getting back on the ice,” Daly said. “We’ll make announcements when we need to make announcements.”
“We’re 100 percent focused on not missing any regular-season games, and hopefully we can achieve that objective,” Daly said.
- James Mirtle of the Globe and Mail: Mirtle puts together a compromise that could end the lockout.
Step 1: Let the players keep the $1.87-billion they earned last season – and not a penny more.
Step 2: Allow the players small raises of 3 per cent annually between Years 2 and 5. That’s salary growth that should easily be outstripped by revenue growth.
Step 3: Leave the current three-year entry level contract system as is, but put a cap of $5-million average annual value on contracts during players’ fourth and fifth years in the league. And only players who gets to the 600 games played mark or age 29 become unrestricted free agents.
Step 4: No more lifetime contracts. Put a reasonable cap on the length of a deal at somewhere between six and eight years.
Step 5: Make it a 10-year collective bargaining agreement. Play at a 50-50 revenue split for the final five years and never have a lockout again.
