There’s “still a lot of work to do,” Donald Fehr said, according to Renaud P Lavoie, but the NHLPA’s executive director isn’t sure what the next step is.
The CBA negotiations have ended for the day and Fehr followed them up with some internal discussions. Those will continue tomorrow.
The good news is that he doesn’t think that the two sides are as far apart on the core economic issues as the NHL suggests, according to ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun.
However, Fehr doesn’t like the NHL’s “make whole” proposal in its current form.
“With their make whole proposal, players won’t be able to receive every dollar of their deal,” Fehr said.
An NHL source recently suggested otherwise, but we might not have all the details.
Fehr also fought back against the recent accusation that his memo to the players didn’t fairly portray the league’s offer.
“Their proposal is in front of players who are in the room,” Fehr said.
Winnipeg Jets defenseman Ron Hainsey added that “every player is welcome in every meeting.”
Ultimately what we can take away from this is that the negotiations might be at a bit of a crossroads. However, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is willing to continue meeting and
the Canadian Press’ Chris Johnston reported that the talks will probably end up resuming tomorrow.
Although both sides have made some less than encouraging statements from the perspective of a fan that simply wants the lockout to end, it’s worth remembering that a lot of progress has been made since the work stoppage began. The gap between the two sides has shrunk considerably -- which would make it that much greater of a shame if the NHL and NHLPA are unable to come to an agreement before the 2012-13 season is lost.