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NHL reportedly to hold off on 2nd labor charge for now

Thursday, March 31, 2005

The National Hockey League is reportedly holding off on filing a second unfair labor practices charge against the NHLPA, at least for now.

Sportsnet reports the league decided to hold off on filing the charge with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board after the NHLPA met a league deadline to provide more information about reports that agents could lose their certification if they were to represent replacement players.

Sportsnet the two sides are in the process of corresponding on the issue. The league has said if it does not find the NHLPA's response satisfactory it would go ahead and file the charge.

Last week the NHL filed an unfair labor practices charge against the PA over an alleged policy that in part requires NHLPA members to agree not to become replacement players in order to receive lockout benefits. There is also the issue of players having to pay back lockout pay if they do become replacements. The NLRB is in the process of investigating the charge.

Team homework assignments due

Thursday was reportedly the deadline for NHL teams to turn in the homework assignments they were given during the March 1 Board of Governors Meeting. The assignment had to do with teams operating in a replacement player world.

"At our March 1 meeting we actually handed out workbooks to the 30 clubs and asked them to get back to us with a variety of information:  projections; financial projections; some information with respect to potential replacement players," NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly told NHL Network earlier this week. "We're going to process that information, which we are supposed to get back at the end of March, in preparation for our April 20 Board of Governors meeting. I expect to have more discussion of those topics at that meeting."

Daly told NHL Network no decision has been made on whether the league will go the replacement route in absence of an agreement with the NHLPA.

Many believe the issue of replacement players is a divisive one within the National Hockey League.

"A lot of people want to go the replacement route but a lot of people don't. This is a real contentious issue within the NHL but they have to chart that course and I think that is what's going to be done over the next two weeks," TSN commentator Bob McKenzie said earlier this week. "I'm not absolutely convinced the NHL will go the replacement route even though there are lots of owners that have said, 'we're playing in the fall no matter what'. I still think there's a lot of talk on this issue."

Former Vancouver Canucks GM Brian Burke believes some teams won't even turn in their homework assignments.

"I think some teams are not going to return their workbooks. A number of teams that are opposed to replacement players or don't see the usefulness of the exercise," Burke said on TSN earlier this week. "It's not out of defiance of the National Hockey League as much a belief that you really can't do the exercise.

"Some of those books are not going to come back. The debate about whether to use replacement players or not has not abated, it has not been resolved and it is far from over."