None of the top executives involved in the NHL's collective bargaining negotiations will continue to be paid if the league enacts a lockout next week.
Donald Fehr, the executive director of the NHL Players' Association, says he stopped drawing a salary on July 1 and a source told The Canadian Press that commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly plan to follow suit if a new agreement can't be reached by Sept. 15.
It's a practice Fehr adhered to during his time at baseball's union and one his predecessor at the NHLPA, Bob Goodenow, also followed when the 2004-05 season was wiped out by a lockout.
"It's both a measure of solidarity and uniformity of interest," Fehr said in an interview Thursday. "You want the players to understand you're in the same boat they are -- you don't have interests different than they do. We think it's important."
For Bettman and Daly, it marks a different approach from the last round of negotiations. They were each paid through the 2004-05 lockout.
On Thursday, Daly declined to confirm directly that he and Bettman would stop being paid, but said "the assumption that high-ranking league executives will continue to receive a salary during a lockout is not necessarily accurate."
Another lockout is growing more likely with each passing day.
The NHL and NHLPA both indicated that the stalled talks are on the verge of resuming, possibly as early as Friday. The sides haven't sat across from one another since last week, when an offer by the NHL prompted the union to counter with changes to a previous proposal tabled last month.
Bettman was unhappy they didn't come back with a more formal offer and indicated that it would be up to the union to make a move to restart talks. However, Daly said Thursday that it wouldn't have to be in the form of a new offer from the NHLPA.
"I think we've made it clear that we don't think it's incumbent on us to make the next proposal," said Daly. "We continue to feel that we made a very significant proposal last week and we're not prepared to negotiate against ourselves at this point."
Informal talks between the sides have been ongoing throughout the week. When asked where he thought negotiations would pick up, Fehr responded: "I don't know how that will go yet."
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