- Pierre LeBrun via twitter: Not a 100% finalized, but both sides are tentatively scheduled to resume negotiations on Tuesday in New York.
- Aaron Ward via twitter: The NHLPA will have a conference call at 4 PM today for the Executive Board and Negotiating Committee.
- Lance Hornby via twitter: Steve Fehr on Saturday’s talks: “I agree with what Bill said. Hopefully we can continue the dialogue, expand the group, and make steady progress.”
- Elliotte Friedman of CBC: There still hasn’t been a reaction from the NHLPA on how they felt Saturday’s meetings went. Both sides will consider what was discussed at those meetings, inform their committees, and then formulate a plan going forward. The NHL and NHLPA will have to decide how far they will bend on certain matters. Things could still get ugly if there isn’t room to compromise.
- David Shoalts of the Globe and Mail: Some owners don’t like some of the salary cap provisions that the owners have presented. One, is that performance bonuses are not counted to get to the salary cap floor. Another, is that all salaries over $105,000 are counted towards the salary cap, including players on team’s minor league rosters. Teams that operate near the salary cap floor are not thrilled about bonuses not counting, as they’d have to spend more money to get to the floor. Teams that may not like this could include: Panthers, Predators, Islanders, Stars, Blues, Capitals, Ducks and Avalanche. Another group of unhappy people may be the veteran AHL players who may see their salaries capped at $105,000. Some AHL veterans are earning $300,000.
- Michael Russo of the Star Tribune: Some things the NHL as proposed in the past:
1) artificially inflate the salary cap in Year 1 so teams don’t have to trade or release players; 2) trade player salary and cap charges in trades (this is something both teams and players have wanted); 3) eliminate re-entry waivers; 4) Increase revenue sharing with further increases as revenues grow, and the top grossing teams making the biggest contributions (revenue sharing is something Don Fehr is passionate about; wants it so the teams that really need assistance are assisted); 5) Introduction of appeal rights to a neutral third-party arbitrator in cases involving on- and- off-ice discipline (player-proposed wish).
Some things the NHLPA should like:
1) Joint NHL/NHLPA Health and Safety Committee with equal representation by the league and union; 2) Establishment of a “standard of care” and “primary allegiance” obligations between the team medical staff and players (this is directly due to the tragic Derek Boogaard situation that remains ongoing); 3) Offseason rehab activities would no longer be required in the team’s home city; 4) Players have access to second medical opinions at the club expense; 5) Ice time restrictions and days off during training camp; 5) Improved facility standards in visiting locker rooms; 6) Ice condition improvements and standards; 7) More player friendly rules for parent-son trips, teams would have to pay for parents travel and lodging to first-ever games, other milestones; 8) Different standards for rent and mortgage reimbursements from teams; 9) increased access to tickets for visiting players and also a game ticket policy that minimizes the tax impact on players; 10) And also, the league has agreed to consider a player proposal for single rooms for all players on the road, which would be thousands of extra dollars spent on travel. Typically, players share rooms on the road unless you’re a longstanding player (600 games), or in a lot of cases, goaltenders.
- Sam Carchidi via twitter: If a new CBA is signed and the season were to start on December 1st, a 64 game schedule against only conference teams is possible. 6 games against division rivals, 4 games against others.
- Sam Carchidi via twitter: Carchidi would be surprised if a deal gets done this week.
