With Sept. 15 rapidly approaching, it appears that the players and owners might at least start formally negotiating again.
The Canadian Press reports that the NHL and NHLPA are “on the verge” of resuming talks, “possibly as early as Friday.”
NHLPA head Donald Fehr was reluctant to make any bold claims, though.
“I don’t know how that will go yet,” Fehr said.
Gary Bettman’s right-hand man Bill Daly indicated that the ball is in the NHLPA’s court now.
“I think we’ve made it clear that we don’t think it’s incumbent on us to make the next proposal,” said Daly. “We continue to feel that we made a very significant proposal last week and we’re not prepared to negotiate against ourselves at this point.”