- Chris Johnston (CP) in the Global News: The NHL and NHLPA met for about 7 hours yesterday, with the meeting wrapping up around 10:15 pm. Both sides didn’t want to say much about how things went.
“With meetings scheduled to resume Wednesday, the league will not characterize the substance or detail of the discussions until their conclusion,” deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement on Tuesday night.
Before the meeting started yesterday, Don Fehr had this to say:
“We’re hopeful that we’ll start bargaining and we’ll continue bargaining until we find a way to make a deal,” he said.
“It’s very good to be getting back to the table,” said Fehr. “We hope that this time it produces more progress that we’ve seen in the past and we can figure out a way to make an agreement and to get the game back on the ice as soon as possible.”
The biggest issue has been how to ‘make whole.’ The NHL has said they will assume more liability in exchange for capping contracts at 5 years, entry-level deals at 2 years, and unrestricted free agency being at 28 years old or after 8 years of NHL service. The union isn’t a really fan of that.
- Pierre LeBrun via twitter: LeBrun noted that it was good that the the meeting was long, but it’s dangerous to read to much into it. There is a lot of ground to cover. Bob McKenzie via twitter: Meeting for hours, not saying anything afterwards, and meeting today is probably the best thing that anyone could have hoped for.
- Adrian Dater via twitter: Dater is hearing some optimism about these talks. No deal is done until its done though.
- NHLPA via twitter: Players who attended yesterday’s talks: Adams, Backes, Biron, Campoli, Crosby, Darche, Hainsey, Hedberg, Lucic, Malhotra, Montador, S. Thornton, and Westgarth.
- Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Sidney Crosby and team player rep Craig Adams hadn’t planned on going to yesterday’s CBA meetings, but after the union conference call on Monday night, they changed their mind. Several Penguins thought the manner in which guaranteed contracts were going to be honored was the major stumbling block between the two sides.