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NHLPA rejects offer; Bettman sets deadline

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has finally set a deadline for the season to be saved. It doesn't require a deal to be signed. It requires the league and the NHLPA to be in the process of drafting an agreement by this weekend. Bettman's announcement came after the NHLPA rejected the league's latest offer to end the lockout, which reached its 147th day on Wednesday.

"It is clear to me that if we're not working on a written document memorializing our agreement this weekend, I don't see how we can play any semblance of the season," commissioner Gary Bettman said in a news conference. "And that was a message that I conveyed to the union this afternoon."

NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow said the task of meeting Bettman's deadline would not be easy, but he didn't rule it out.

"The prospect that we'd be able to conclude an agreement by the end of the weekend is very daunting,'' Goodenow said in his own news conference. "It is possible, but I don't want to discuss the levels of probability."

Bettman said he would make an official announcement on the cancellation of the season if it comes to that.

The league latest offer involved starting the new CBA with the NHLPA's proposal from December 9. That proposal involved a 24 percent rollback on current contracts, a luxury tax and changes to other elements of the previous system.

The league said if that system did not work as defined by the league, the CBA would then change into the NHL's cap-based proposal from February 2.

The league's definition of how the NHLPA's system would not work was if any one of the following were to happen:

1. League-wide Player Compensation exceeds 55 percent of League-wide hockey revenues; or
    

2. The average of Club Payroll for highest three Payroll Clubs in the League is more than 33 percent higher than the average of Club Payroll for the lowest three Payroll Clubs in the League; or
    

3. Any three Clubs each have Club Player Compensation in excess of $42 million; or
    

4. League-wide average Player Compensation per Club exceeds $36.5 million.

"Any one of those triggers would indicate we were spending too much, more than we could afford, or that the disparities among teams was too great," Bettman said about the triggers that would put the NHL's proposal into effect.

Plus, under the league's proposal, if the players' system did not work and the NHL's system were to be put into place "any 'excess' payments made by the Clubs to the Players would be recouped."

But Goodenow said the league's trigger points were just different ways of enacting the league's cap proposals and said the PA had no interest starting with one system to see if it works to the league's liking.

"Our proposal of Dec. 9, we believe, would go a long way towards addressing their concerns as we understand them," Goodenow said. "I don't know that a flip-flop arrangement really makes sense. It's not about a better deal being out there, it's about finding a fair deal.

"We are trying to find a system that both sides can agree on and go forward on one system."

Bettman and NHL executive vice-president Bill Daly, who traveled to Toronto to make the proposal to the NHLPA, have been invited to stay by Goodenow and the PA to continue talks.

Bettman said if there is an agreement and the season is played it will be a 28-game season with each team playing a home-and-home series with its conference rivals. The playoff format would stay the same.