#Isles RW Kyle Okposo with a high hit on #NHLJets D Zach Bogosian. Shoulder to head, but it was not called by folks in stripes.
— Ken Wiebe (@WiebeSunSports) April 20, 2013
Sean Gentille Sporting News --- After about 90 minutes of meetings between the sides in New York on Wednesday, Fehr told reporters that the league proposed what currently represents a 46 percent share of hockey-related revenue for players. That's up from the initial offer of 43 percent, which was presented on July 13, but down from the 57 percent the union currently receives.Also, Garry Bettman had this zinger today, saying the players should have no "entitlement" to 57 percent revenues.Yeah, that comment is going to win Bettman friends with the fans and players.
According to multiple reports, the NHL proposal had three years at a fixed salary cap starting at about $58 million—a drop of about $12 million—before returning to a system where the cap is based on overall league revenues with a 50-50 split; and no rollbacks for current contracts.
That, at least according to Fehr, was not entirely accurate due to league-proposed changes to the definition of hockey-related revenue; the players might be getting 50 percent in the latest proposal, but it would come from a smaller pie.
"Our preference is to keep the same definition of (hockey-related revenue)," Fehr said.
Also, Fehr said, players would pay more in escrow in the early years of the deal, which would essentially function as a salary rollback. The union, according to multiple reports, projects to pay 15-20 percent in escrow off the top of each paycheck, compared to about 8 percent currently. That money is held out to guarantee appropriate division of revenue, then paid back at a later date—assuming the league meets its projections.
TSN.CA --- National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters on Thursday that the NHL will lock out its players if there is no new collective bargaining agreement by the time the old agreement expires on Sept. 15.
"We reiterated to the union that the owners will not play another year under the current agreement," he told a scrum of reporters in New York after the latest talks.
"I re-confirmed something that the union has been told multiple times over the last nine to 12 months. Namely, that the time is getting short and the owners are not prepared to operate under this collective bargaining agreement for another season so we need to get to making a deal and doing it soon. And we believe there's ample time for the parties to get together and make a deal and that's what we're going to be working towards."
Reports indicate that NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, who just returned from a player information session overseas, is expected to make a counter-proposal on Tuesday. He mentioned earlier this summer that the players were willing to keep working past Sept. 15 as long as solid progress was being made in the negotiations.
Chris Johnston, The Canadian Press, Donald Fehr nearly has all his ducks in a row.
The globe-trotting head of the NHL Players' Association is just about ready to counter the league's initial proposal for a new collective bargaining agreement. He's likely to make at least part of his pitch during the scheduled talks in New York this week, Fehr told The Canadian Press on Monday.
"I think that there's certainly a possibility — a reasonable one — that we'll be in a position to make some further response," Fehr said in an interview. "Whether we'll be in a position to make an alternative proposal yet I don't know."
NEW YORK (AP) -- The NHL and the NHL Players' Association are set to resume labor talks on Wednesday at the league offices in New York.
Total revenue of the league's operations is the biggest sticking point right now, and it's an important one. The players like their cut right now. The owners don't.
The two sides met last Friday in another round of negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement before the current one expires on Sept. 15.
There were multiple reports coming out of the last round of talks that the owners' offer included players' hockey-related revenues get slashed from 57 percent to 46 percent. It also was reported that players would be forced to wait 10 years before becoming unrestricted free agents and that contracts would be limited to five years -- a major change considering Zach Parise and fellow blue-chip free agent Ryan Suter decided to sign matching 13-year, $98 million contracts with the Minnesota Wild.
NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr and NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly are among those meeting Wednesday. The two sides have regularly met since opening talks June 29 in a bid to reach a new collective bargaining agreement.
Michael Russo, Star Tribune --- Leipold responded Monday, saying, "Listen: We've been losing money and the way we were going, we were going to have another year of 'keep losing more money and more money and more money.' So if I'm going to make the kind of financial commitment to keep this team and move this forward, I'd rather do it growing it.The hockey world has been a buzz since the big signing in Minnesota and you can bet that executive director of the National Hockey League Players Association Donald Fehr took note of the signing as well.
"Ultimately that was the decision. As a result of this move, it's not going to cause us to be financially stable. I believe it will be within a year or two. This is a move to get us out of the hole that we've been digging. And as I spoke with some other owners in the league as to why I did it, they totally get it. They understand it. At some point you have to make that kind of commitment in order to turn your franchise around. If we didn't, then we would just keep losing more going forward without any plan of changing it."
Ironically, the day after the spending spree, Leipold was one of the owners who sat in the bargaining session between the NHL and NHL Players' Association in New York. The league has moved to terminate the collective bargaining agreement and negotiate another. The current agreement expires Sept. 15, and the league is in danger of a lockout. In 2004-05, the season was wiped out because of a lockout.
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BOSTON -- In every series, there seems to be one designated whipping boy. That one, lonely, unfortunate player whose underachieving, faux pas or foibles make him a lightning rod for criticism and derision.
There was Marian Gaborik in New York as the Rangers bowed out in the first round.
There was Nicklas Backstrom in Washington as the top-seeded Capitals were swept in the second round.
Tomas Kaberle has no goals and three assists in 12 postseason games for the Bruins.
There were the goaltenders in Philadelphia who imploded all spring.
And in Boston, there is Tomas Kaberle.
The Bruins, of course, remain a part of the playoff story, competing in their first conference finals since 1992. But Kaberle's tepid play remains one of the most perplexing stories of this postseason and makes the Bruins' attempts to advance to the Stanley Cup finals significantly more difficult.
Maybe it's the history -- the failed attempts by the Bruins to acquire the smooth-skating defenseman from Toronto over the past couple of seasons -- that has ramped up the disappointment meter this spring.
There had been much anticipation at Kaberle's arrival in Boston at the trade deadline. When GM Peter Chiarelli finally pulled the trigger on the long-awaited deal, sending a first-round draft pick, a conditional pick and prospect Joe Colborne to Toronto, there were some who thought Kaberle represented that elusive final piece to the puzzle in ending the Bruins' long Stanley Cup drought.
Now, he's just a puzzle.
