Back to the bargaining table

 Tuesday, May 24, 2005

The NHL and NHLPA head back to the bargaining table Wednesday amid reports that an agreement could be just a few weeks away despite both sides saying they haven't reached an agreement on any of  the several key issues involved.

The two sides are scheduled to meet in Chicago on Wednesday and Thursday to pick up where they left off last week in New York. 

"I expect that we will continue discussing financial and accounting issues, and perhaps additional topics," NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly told the Associated Press Tuesday.

Those financial and accounting issues were topics covered in four days of talks last week. Talks that concluded Friday with both sides saying there had been progress, but no agreement reached on any issues.

Even so, Daly was quoted as telling MSG's Stan Fischler that, "We are on our way home," and speculating that a deal by early June was possible.

"We still have a ton of issues to do,” Daly told Fischler, "but, if we continue on the same level that we did on Friday, it can get done by early June."

But by Monday, Daly didn't sound quite as optimistic in an interview with the National Post. He didn't sound pessimistic either. And he wasn't ready to offer a timetable as to when the two sides might finally reach an agreement on a new CBA.

"Obviously, the sooner we can get this done and behind us, the better off we’ll all be," he told the Post via email. "We’ll have to see if we can continue to make progress. It’s really too early to say when a deal could be concluded.

"We didn’t get anything resolved, per se, but I thought we had a good, productive week of meetings last week. Hopefully, we can continue and build off of that."

NHL team executives were looking at the situation with matter of fact realism.

"A deal isn't complete until a deal is done," Detroit Red Wings senior vice president Jimmy Devellano told the Detroit News. "It's good that they are talking and meeting quite a bit. But there's work remaining to be done."

And there was this comment to the Canadian Press  from New Jersey Devils GM and CEO Lou Lamoriello: "Until you get something done, nothing is done. The only thing that you can take as a positive is that there is continuous talk and there doesn't seem to be interruptions and to me, that's the only way something will get done if it's to get done. But I don't want to be optimistic and certainly not pessimistic by any means."

Vincent Damphousse, a member of the players' executive committee, was taking a similar approach to Lamoriello and Devellano.

"It's too early to get excited," he told the CP "I hope it's going to get settled but it's too soon to be too optimistic or to say that we're close to agreeing on a deal. It's too premature to say that.

"But we're meeting and we're talking about all kinds of things and we're trying to find common ground. That's the best way I can describe things right now."

Once the two sides resolve the financial and accounting issues, it will be time to move on to other key elements of the new economic system such as salary arbitration, qualifying offers and the entry-level system. 

There have also been reports that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is putting pressure on the PA to try to get a deal done by the middle of June. That's when many sponsors have said they may pull their support for the league if there is no deal.

"Every day that goes by, the league probably loses some money," Doug Checkeris, president of Media Company in Toronto, told the Toronto Globe and Mail last week.

"This is the moment for them to announce they have an agreement to maximize their television revenue for the fall ..... Most people don't think it's an issue until the fall, but really all of the dollars are all getting committed now."