The NHLPA hasn’t decided if they want to go ahead with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s proposal to hold a CBA meeting between the players and owners without the union or league leaders being present. However, if such a meeting does happen, Martin St. Louis would want to be a part of it.
“I would,” St. Louis said in a Tampa Bay Times report. “But you would have to be cautious, too. These guys (the owners) are successful because they’re doing deals their whole life. We’re hockey players, so we have to be careful.”
One thing St. Louis wants clarified is what owners would be present. If it’s just the hard-liners, then St. Louis isn’t sure that the meeting would be productive.
“But it’s something to think about,” St. Louis said. “I’m sure we’ll discuss the ins and outs of it.”
The NHLPA and NHL also recently spoke to federal mediators about the lockout. However, the mediators only spoke with them for two days before determining, in NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly’s words, “that the parties remained far apart, and that no progress toward a resolution could be made through further mediation at this point in time.”