NHL Talks Get Nowhere Fast

Negotiators for the NHL gave representatives of the players’ union a memo outlining six concepts for an economic system that would create “cost certainty,” but a key union official said the proposals floated during a four-hour meeting Wednesday in New York did nothing to create a bridge toward a new collective bargaining agreement.

“Each of the concepts began and ended with a salary cap, and that doesn’t present something we’re interested in,” Ted Saskin, senior director of the NHL Players’ Assn., said in a phone interview. “Each is predicated on there being an agreement that the total amount of player compensation would not exceed a certain percentage of leaguewide revenues....

“They do seem fixated on the cap. We understand that’s what they’re trying to achieve. They’re interested in triggering an owners’ lockout.”

The labor agreement between the NHL and the NHLPA will expire Sept. 15, a day after the finale of the World Cup of Hockey. Owners and league executives have said they’re seeking an economic framework that will nurture competitive balance and curtail losses that hit $273 million for the 2002-03 season, according to a league-commissioned report. Players dispute the league’s economic data and say competitive balance already exists and would flourish under a market-based system without a cap.

Of the four major sports leagues, the NHL stands alone in not having a salary cap or luxury tax.

The NHL has built a $300-million reserve to tap for operating costs during a lockout. This week, it began reducing its staff at its offices in New York and Toronto, telling many employees they have no guarantee of being rehired after a lockout. Individual clubs already have told many employees that their paychecks could be cut or disappear if a lockout lingers.

Bill Daly, executive vice president and chief counsel for the NHL, said the union had asked for more details on some of the proposed concepts but would not specify what the concepts entailed other than to call them unique. He said the league would provide the requested information when the sides meet again Aug. 4 in Toronto. Before Wednesday, they had not talked since May 25.

He added that the meeting was “very businesslike, a good dialogue, though I wouldn’t say we agreed on everything.”

Some players have signed agreements to play in Europe if the NHL season is delayed or wiped out, and Saskin said the union is encouraging them to formulate plans to go to school or play elsewhere if they wish. He also said the NHLPA isn’t opposed to players signing with the fledgling World Hockey Assn., even though that league has a salary cap, “because they’re not buying into any kind of system on a long-term basis. It’s a temporary option.”

He also said the NHLPA and the WHA haven’t discussed any kind of working agreement. The new league, scheduled to launch its season Oct. 29, held an entry draft last weekend.