NHL offers locked out players new proposal

A little over a month into the lockout, there is some hope that the entire NHL season can be saved.

The NHL on Tuesday offered the players' union a 50/50 split on hockey-related revenue, provided that an 82-game season starts on Nov. 2.

The season was originally slated to begin Oct. 11, but it has been shut down because of a labor dispute.

"We very much want to preserve an 82-game season," Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, said.

Translation: We don't want to lose any more money. The league has said it lost $100 million from canceled exhibition games.

Donald Fehr, executive director of the NHL Players' Association, said he and union members needed time to "wade through" the proposal before commenting on it. He had a conference call with the union's executive board and the negotiating committee Tuesday evening.

Both sides will resume talks Thursday in Toronto.

"Hopefully, this gets the ball rolling in the right direction," said Flyers player representative Braydon Coburn, a defenseman who has been working out with some NHL players in Calgary.

There is work that needs to be done before a new collective-bargaining agreement is in place. Steve Montador, the Blackhawks' player representative, told the Chicago Sun-Times that the league had made a "number of changes" to the definition of hockey-related revenue.

The NHLPA wants the definition to stay the same as in the last collective bargaining agreement.

Bettman claimed there were "no rollbacks" in players' salaries, though some of their money would apparently be deferred.

The proposal, as part of a six-year agreement, includes a provision that says salaries for NHL players performing in the AHL would be part of the team's salary cap. The NHLPA is not expected to agree to that because, in effect, it would lower salaries. (As it is, teams stash some players in the AHL to lower their cap. The New York Rangers, for instance, have had ineffective defenseman Wade Redden and his $6.5 million cap hit in the minors for the last two seasons.)

The league also proposed increasing revenue sharing to $200 million, which is $10 million more than its previous offer. The players have been asking for $250 million as a way to help franchises that are struggling financially.

Bettman said there would be a one-week training camp before the season would start. That means a deal would have to be signed by Oct. 25, with camps opening Oct. 26.

"So we have about nine or 10 days to get this all put to bed, signed, sealed and delivered, in order for this offer to be effective and for us to move forward," the commissioner said.

In the last collective-bargaining agreement, the players received 57 percent of the hockey-related revenue. They were asking for 53 to 54 percent this time.

Last month, the NHL had offered the players 49 percent the first year, 48 percent the second year and 47 percent for the last four years of the CBA.

Tuesday's proposal in Toronto caps new contracts to five years - with the yearly salary variance not exceeding 5 percent, thus stopping the back-diving contracts that owners have been offering. The proposal would push unrestricted free agency to age 28 or eight years of service. It currently is 27 years or seven years of service, but the NHL had originally wanted it increased to 10 years.

Entry-level deals would go from three to two years, and salary arbitration would go from the fourth to the fifth year.

Fehr said he was "surprised" by the owners' offer, though Bill Daly, the NHL's deputy commissioner, had strongly hinted to The Inquirer on Monday that the league was going to make a proposal. The proposal came one day after word leaked that the NHL had commissioned a focus group to aid its PR image during the lockout.

If the season starts on Nov. 2, the original schedule would remain in place - and the majority of games missed figure to be added at the end of the season, which would be extended by a few weeks. Some games might be added during the season to accommodate teams' traveling itineraries. The Stanley Cup playoffs could last until the last week in June.

The bottom line: The NHL, to its credit, got things going on Tuesday.

But what took so long?

Flyers schedule. If the owners' proposal goes into effect, the Flyers' first game would be Nov. 3 against visiting Anaheim and Cherry Hill's Bobby Ryan. The Flyers would play seven of their first 10 games at home.