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Not good enough: NHL rejects latest NHLPA offer

Donald Fehr: Sidney Crosby

Donald Fehr, left, executive director of the NHL players’ association, talks to reporters following collective bargaining talks between the NHLPA and the NHL in Toronto on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. Players, from left, Detroit Red Wings’ Daniel Cleary, Edmonton Oilers’ Shawn Horcoff, Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby, Carolina Hurricanes’ Eric Staal and Phoenix Coyotes’ Shane Doan listen in the background. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Chris Young)

AP

NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr presented a proposal to the NHL that he thought could end the lockout. It looks like that might not be the case.

Fehr barely ended his optimistic press conference where he stated that he thought there was a complete agreement on “dollars” issues when he returned to tell the media that the NHL has determined that the union’s offer was “unacceptable.”

“It looks like this is not going to be resolved in the immediate future,” Fehr conceded.

For now it’s not clear what issues the NHL has with the proposal.

Before the NHL rejected the offer, Fehr believed that there was an agreement on the make-whole issue or, as the union is now calling it, “transition payments.” He also thought that the matter of players’ pensions might have been settled.

As far as contract lengths go, the NHLPA proposed that player deals last a maximum of eight years.

The union’s offer would have led to an eight-year CBA with a player option to opt-out after six years.

The latest CBA meeting latest roughly an hour and didn’t include NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. Deputy commissioner Bill Daly was present and left for internal meetings.

It’s not immediately clear what the next step will be in the ongoing CBA negotiations.