For all the talk the NHL and NHLPA have engaged in since the CBA expired a month ago on Sept. 15, not one side has submitted a new proposal for the other to consider.
Will this be the week we see some concrete movement on the core economic issues? The two sides are set to meet Tuesday in Toronto, so it’s possible. The “Big Four” -- Gary Bettman, Bill Daly, Donald Fehr and Steve Fehr -- will reportedly be in attendance.
TSN’s Darren Dreger is “hearing about a radically different” proposal that the players are working on. But how “radically different” we’re left to wonder. (Luxury tax?)
The last proposal -- from the the league, on Sept. 12 -- called for players to receive 49 percent of hockey-related revenue in Year 1 of the agreement, 48 percent in Year 2, and 47 percent in the remaining four years.
The players, having just earned 57 percent of the revenue under the last CBA, were predictably unimpressed. In fact, any scenario that results in less money going to the players in Year 1 of the agreement, they’ve said they won’t accept.
Thus the main sticking point of the disagreement, since the owners want an immediate reduction in said money.