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Talks to continue FridayFriday, August 31, 2007 The NHL and NHLPA met for about ten hours Thursday and have scheduled another round of talks for Friday. The large group bargaining session that was expected on Thursday apparently didn't happen as the two sides again met in a small group setting to work on financial issues. "As we will be resuming negotiations Friday, we will defer comment on the status of negotiations until that session is complete," NHL chief legal officer Bill Daley said in a statement after the conclusion of Thursday's session, which began at 10:30 a.m. ET and concluded at about 8:30 p.m. "We continued our small group meeting throughout the day and evening, and plan to meet again tomorrow morning in both small and large groups. We will not be making further comment until tomorrow's meetings have concluded," NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin said in a statement Thursday evening. Thursday's session followed a ten-hour small group meeting on Wednesday. The two sides are working to reach an agreement on the definition of revenues. Once that issue is settled the two sides can move on to determine the mechanics of the salary cap system, which will be linked to league revenues in some fashion. After that, it is believed, there are still several other issues to be settled. That's why some in the media are cautioning against buying into reports that a deal is imminent. "Clearly these negotiations are on the right track. They are progressing in the right direction," TSN's Bob McKenzie said in a broadcast Thursday evening . "But there seems to be this breathless anticipation that any hour now Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow are going to come out and say, 'Hey, guess what? The lockout is over. The deal is done.' I really think we should be measuring our anticipation not in hour, but more in days, if not, weeks as in a week or two." And there was this from the Toronto Globe and Mail's Eric Duhatschek on Thursday afternoon: "Yes, if negotiations continue along this path, there should be an agreement in place sometime this month. But that's all the news worth reporting at this point and time. "They are still haggling over systemic issues - everything from arbitration, qualifying offers, entry-level, draft, age for unrestricted free agency, revenue sharing - all of which need to be resolved to the satisfaction of both sides before a deal is done."
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