- Pierre LeBrun via twitter: Both sides touched base yesterday, but no bargaining sessions scheduled.
- Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: There are 3 road block issues right now. 1. The core economic issue: The NHL offered $211 million in deferred payments plus interested to ‘make whole.’ The NHLPA maybe looking for something closer to $600 million. They are looking for $1.883 billion plus 1.75% in the first year of the deal. 2. Player contracting rights: It has become a bigger issue over the last week. The NHL won’t move on this until it has the ‘make whole’ figured out. The NHLPA doesn’t won’t to move on the current player rights since they are going down to 50% from 57%. The NHL wants the NHLPA to counter on this area, but the NHLPA say they are not interested in any of it. LeBrun thinks the NHL should move to 8 years/28 years old old to 7 and 27, and not to change the entry-level or salary arbitration systems. Also to give up on 5 year contract max. Aspects that the NHL should hold firm on are the 5% rule for contracts (year-to-year can only go up or down 5%), stashing NHL contracts in the AHL, and the back-diving rule in which if a player retires before his contract expires, the original team gets his cap hit. 3. The damage of the lockout: After cancelling November games, Bill Daly estimates they’ve lost $720 million, and that doesn’t include the Winter Classic. They need to figure out how to “share in the pain” of the lockout damage for a shortened season (if there is one). The NHL will see as a 50-50 split. The NHLPA may say it’s more of an NHL issue since they locked the players out. They did get close on revenue sharing, with the NHL coming up to $220 million from $150 million, with the NHLPA may be wanting to modify how the program is run.
- Elliotte Friedman via twitter: The Bruins have 12 players under contract for 2014-15 (excluding Doug Hamilton), the Flyers have 10, the Maple Leafs and Rangers have 3. Great little story from Brett Hull on Adam Oates:
“I always felt bad for the guy on our left wing. He would come to the bench and he’d ask Adam, ‘Did you see me? I was wide open.’ He’d look at the guy and go, ‘Yeah I saw you, but who do you think I want to pass to — you or Brett?'”