The National Hockey League and the NHL Players' Association have ended talks for the day.
The NHLPA presented three different counter-proposals to the league in hopes of bridging the gap.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said following the meeting that none of the offers "even began to approach 50-50" and said he's concerned that it's a step back.
"It's clear we're not speaking the same language," said Bettman. "I am concerned we are not progressing.
"This is the best offer that we have to make," Bettman said of the proposal from the league earlier this week. "The fact is, we're nowhere close to what we proposed."
Bettman said he is still hopeful the league can have a full season but time is running out to make that happen.
"I don't know what the next step is," added Bettman. "I'm obviously very discouraged."
The meeting, which began 90 minutes later than originally scheduled, lasted just over an hour.
"We were done in an hour today because there was really nothing there," said Bettman.
Bettman finished with reporters saying no new talks are immediately scheduled and said "I wish I had better news."
Both sides met for several hours through the early afternoon on Tuesday, with a significant proposal from the league on the table contingent on an 82-game season beginning Nov. 2.
Today's meeting in Toronto had NHL owners Jeremy Jacobs (Boston), Craig Leipold (Minnesota), Murrya Edwards (Calgary) and Ted Leonsis (Washington) joining the league's braintrust.
18 players represented the PA, including Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews and Jarome Iginla.
St. Louis Blues captain David Backes tweeted to NHL on TSN Insider Pierre LeBrun following today's meeting: "We feel our newest proposal took a great step towards getting a deal done. It's too bad the owners don't feel that way and I fear that we may miss an extended amount of time now."
NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr spent Wednesday examining the document with staff and the league has indicated that if a deal is worked out after next week, there could only be an abbreviated season.
Bettman has offered the players a plan which would includes a 50-50 split in all hockey related revenues and no salary rollback.
Other highlights of the offer - as released by the NHL on Wednesday - included:
- an official salary cap of $59.9 million for the 2012-13 season, with the provision that teams can actually spend up to $70.2 million for one year to ease the transition.
- a new rule that would allow teams to retain a portion of a player's salary in trades.
- the reduction of entry-level contracts to two years.
- a term limit on any contract beyond that set at five years and a stipulation that the average annual value can only vary up to five per cent. This is a mechanism designed to eliminate the long-term, back-diving deals that became popular during the previous CBA.
- the elimination of re-entry waivers.
- an annual revenue-sharing pool of $200 million, half of which is raised from the 10 richest teams, and the creation of a committee to determine how the money is distributed. The NHLPA would be given representation on the committee.
- the introduction of a "neutral" third-party arbitrator to handle appeals on supplemental discipline with a "clearly erroneous" standard of review.
Click on to TSN.ca for details as they follow and get up-to-the-minute news from TSN's Hockey Insiders and reporters on Twitter.
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