Union counter offer expected in NHL labor talks

NEW YORK (AP) - The NHL and NHLPA remained at an impasse in the latest round of collective bargaining talks as the deadline for a lockout looms.

The players’ association took issue Wednesday with the latest NHL proposal that commissioner Gary Bettman called “meaningful” and “significant.”

Donald Fehr, the NHLPA’s executive director, and his assistants have broken down Bettman’s latest offering. Fehr is expected to make a counterproposal as early as Thursday.

The two sides are at odds over hockey-related revenue. The league wants to knock down the players’ percentage to 46. The players’ share of HRR was 57 percent last season. Fehr said changes in how HRR is calculated would see the amount of money players give up to escrow increase “significantly.” Under the NHL’s proposal, the union said current contracts would not be paid in full.

“From a players’ standpoint, you should understand, it doesn’t make much of a difference,” Fehr said Wednesday. “Should the player not get the dollar value that is on his contract because there is a rollback, which is simply a name for crossing out one number and writing in another, or whether he doesn’t get an amount because there is escrow, he still doesn’t get it.”

The current CBA expires Sept. 15 and the league has said it will lock the players out if a new agreement isn’t in place by then. Bettman says he’s content to wait for that aforementioned response from the union, but declared that players shouldn’t feel any “entitlement” to 57 percent of revenues.

Unlike the current CBA in which salaries are tied into revenues, the league’s plan calls for the first three years to be separated from HRR. Also, HRR would be redefined in the final three years of the six-year CBA.

The cap ceiling would drop to $58 million for next season. It would rise to $60 million in 2013-14 and top out at a projected $71 million in 2017-18.

The league and players set the cap ceiling for the 2012-13 season at $70.2 million in a joint statement released in June.

That means 16 teams would be forced to shed varying amounts of salary under the league’s proposal. A short list of those teams are the Boston Bruins, Minnesota Wild, Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, Philadelphia Flyers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Blackhawks, Los Angeles Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals and New York Rangers.

Owners Craig Leipold (Minnesota), Murray Edwards (Calgary), Jeremy Jacobs (Boston), and Ted Leonsis (Washington) are on the league’s negotiating committee, along with Toronto general manager Brian Burke.

Limiting the personnel at the bargaining table in the hope of making progress, only Fehr and his top assistant, Steve Fehr, met with Bettman and NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly when the second proposal was issued Tuesday. Traditionally, several players have joined in on the talks, though many returned on Wednesday.

In fact, the Fehrs were accompanied by NHLPA special consultant Mathieu Schneider, as well as Mike Komisarek (Toronto), Douglas Murray (San Jose), George Parros (Florida), Chris Phillips (Ottawa), Kevin Shattenkirk (St. Louis), Kevin Westgarth (Los Angeles), Craig Adams (Pittsburgh), Nick Bonino (Anaheim), B.J. Crombeen (Tampa Bay), Alex Goligoski (Dallas) and Ron Hainsey (Winnipeg).

Hockey-related revenue is the figure used to calculate the salary cap, with players receiving 57 percent, and the NHL has proposed changes that would lessen the total pot available.

“What we’re trying to do with the definition of changes is better reflect the reality,” Bettman said.

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