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Talking among themselves

Friday, August 31, 2007

It will be another week of talks in the NHL lockout. But instead of talking to each other, the two sides will be talking among themselves. On Tuesday the NHL Board of Governors will meet with Gary Bettman New York, while in Toronto players will meet with Bob Goodenow. Then on Wednesday player agents will get an update on the situation from Goodenow and the PA.

Both sides expect to discuss where they are headed in the future. Carolina GM Jim Rutherford will be attending the NHL meeting, which is open to governors and alternate governors.

"I would expect people would have different questions relating to their own situations," Rutherford told the Canadian Press. "And we have to look at where we're going from here."

New York Islanders Michael Peca expects there be to plenty of topics of discussion when the players get together.

"I'm sure there will be a lot of everything at that meeting," Peca told the CP. "Such as our strategy moving forward, a lot of people may want questions answered, they may want to know what happened, help them understand where things fell apart or didn't come together."

At least in the immediate future the two sides can either start talking again or stay in the current holding pattern. Down the road the league has the option of declaring an impasse, which could possibly lead to the use of replacement players.

As for new talks, NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly isn't saying.

"I supposed I'll know after the Board of Governors meeting. I don't expect anything to happen before Tuesday," Daly told the Newark Star-Ledger.

Former Vancouver Canucks general manager Brian Burke believes the NHL might be willing to play a waiting game for now. Burke believes the owners are still united, they have spent only a small part of the $300 million they set aside to ride out the labor dispute and there may be cracks in the Players' Association.

"I think Bob [Goodenow] has dissenters and they are growing more vocal, "Burke told CKNW radio in Vancouver. "The problem is what is Plan B? Plan A was the owners will cave. Well, guess what?

"The commissioner put in place a credit facility for all the NHL owners -- 30 teams, $10 million per team. They have $300 million to draw on. You know how much they have drawn on? $40 million. They have $260 million left to continue this fight. They are not going to blink."

So what does Burke think Plan B is for the owners? Well, Burke doesn't think it involves an impasse and eventually using replacement players next season.

"Plan B is I think wait. I don't think it has anything to do with replacement players. I will tell you,  as I have said before, twelve years in the room I have never heard them talk about replacement players as a viable strategy," said Burke.

Burke believes there is more pressure on the players to come up with a Plan B right now because he believes the owners are more unified than the players.

"I think you need a Plan B if it is not going your way and it is clear the other side is not going to break. I think there is major dissent on the players' side. You ask what is going to happen, I say I have no idea," Burke said. "The [NHLPA] speech police slapped all these guys down in the fall. Now they can't slap them down. You can't keep doing that. Now guys are going to want to know what Plan B is."

But when the question was raised that the players appeared to become more unified after the break down of those weekend talks just days after Bettman had canceled the season, Burke only said, "We'll find out."

New Jersey attorney Eric Bernstein, who has 20 years experience in labor negotiations, agrees with Burke that going the  replacement player route is probably something the league finds unappealing.

"I don't know if the Board of Governors is interested in that," Bernstein told the South Jersey Courier Post. "Look what happened with NFL replacement players (in 1987). Could the NHL market their game with replacement players?"

As for Bernstein's take on what happens if the two sides decide to play the waiting game, he offered this.

"I think the players know a plan in September would be far worse than what they received now," Bernstein said. "It appears to me there is more solidarity among the owners than the players. But what's the breaking point? Do some owners get squeamish and go to Bettman to make a deal?"

The possibility of squeamish owners would still mean that Plan A is a viable one for Goodenow and the NHLPA, which means the standoff could be a long one as the two sides wait for other one to blink. 

Draft lottery?

Although no decisions are expected to be made, the topic of the NHL Entry Draft is expected to come up at the NHL Board of Governors meeting Tuesday in New York. For now the draft is on hold since there is no CBA.

But once it is held, NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly says the league is leaning towards having some kind of lottery to determine the draft order since the 2004-05 season was canceled.

"We're not going to reach any determination on the draft (Tuesday). But clubs, I'm sure, will have some ideas," Daly told the Newark Star-Ledger. "We generally recognize we're probably not going to stick to the draft order that was in play last year. There will have to be some kind of a lottery system."