Tentative agreement appears imminent

Negotiators for the NHL and its locked-out players union are eyeing the middle of next week to announce that a tentative agreement has been reached in the prolonged labor dispute, 296 days old today.

“Tentative” is the key word. The lengthy document then will be turned over to owners of the 30 league teams and the NHL Players Association for ratification, a process for the players that might make the roughest game appear meek.

“I know they’re trying to get this thing done,” said one of three people questioned yesterday who are familiar with the behind-the-scenes workings of the negotiators. “But they’re not deadline hunting. They want to get it done right and if that takes a few extra days or whatever, s agreement appears imminento be it.”

Negotiators for the two sides have been meeting four or five days a week, sometimes more than 15 hours a day, since early June to get a new collective bargaining agreement reached. The last one expired Sept.15, the day the players were locked out by commissioner Gary Bettman.

It is believed the major issues are out of the way. The union gave in to management’s demand for a salary cap in early June, the age for unrestricted free agency will slowly drop over the next three seasons, a lengthy strangulation hold has been placed on rookie salaries and the salary structure in place for the canceled 2004-05 season will be wiped out.

It will be almost a total victory for management if the document is ratified as currently written. The league had claimed losses of nearly $500million over the last two seasons that were played, figures disputed by the union and other sources.

While specifics are not available, it is believed players have agreed to accept 54percent of league revenues (down from 75percent), with the ceiling on the salary cap thought to be about $36million and the floor $24million. It has not been learned whether team-by-team spending formulas have been agreed to.

“What they’re working on now is about [contract] language and some smaller issues, but make no mistake, this is an all-or-nothing process,” said one observer. “The whole thing gets done and signed or nothing happens. The union really put it to the league the last time, in 1995, when the NHL thought it had an understanding. The union came back once guys were back on the ice, and it was too late to do anything about it then. The league isn’t going to let that happen again.”

Bettman locked players out at the start of the 1994-95 season and announced a tentative agreement in January. Though management thought it had a victory then, the union and agents quickly found huge loopholes in the language that resulted in significant financial windfalls for players, forcing some teams into bankruptcy.

This time it is players who are wondering what happened. They went into the negotiation process with an iron-clad resolve never to give in to the demand for a salary cap, which has worked successfully in other pro leagues — in many cases protecting owners with deep pockets from themselves.

But NHLPA leadership surrendered seemingly without much of a fight on the issue, infuriating many of the players who were left wondering why a season had to be canceled and a year’s pay sacrificed over something that turned out not to be an issue.