Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Will next week make or break the 2012-13 season?

Empty NHL arena

Right now we seem to be stuck in limbo as far as the CBA talks are concerned, but things can change quickly. The question is: Do they need to in order to save the season?

Although we’re only in mid-October, a team executive recently told Pierre LeBrun that there won’t be a 2012-13 season if we don’t get a new CBA within the next week.

That sentiment might be overly pessimistic, but at the same time, the odds of us getting a full 82-game season will be extremely remote if a new CBA isn’t finalized very soon. It has been indicated that the season needs to start by Nov. 2 in order to preserve a full schedule.

The NHL seems to be standing by its most recent offer, which would have given both sides half of hockey-related revenues.

“We think there’s a framework of a deal on the table,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a Globe and Mail report.

The league doesn’t feel the same way about the union’s three counter-proposals, which it quickly rejected.

After that, NHLPA boss Donald Fehr warned that we could be in for a “fairly long road.”