The Toronto Star believes the path to NHL labour peace — and a chance to save the season — is an idea that only number crunchers could love: a cap on escrow.
"If they're willing to cap escrow, there's something to talk about," Mathieu Schneider — Donald Fehr's special assistant at the NHLPA — told the Star on Thursday. "That would definitely be a step toward our direction, but that hasn't been discussed."
The two sides have no plans for face-to-face negotiations.
"The comment (from Schneider) is news to me, but the concept isn't," said NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly. "The subject has never been raised across the table to us, either in the form of a proposal or otherwise.
"It's just another way of addressing the 'make-whole' issue."
Escrow is a percentage of a player's contract that is put aside every year. If the league hits revenue targets, the money is repaid. If not, the teams are due a share of the escrow. If the league exceeds revenue targets, the players get a share of the extra revenue.
NHLers, through the last seven years of their CBA, lost on average about 3.5 per cent of their salaries through escrow.
Both sides have offered each other a 50-50 split on revenue, but neither side liked the strings attached to the others' offer, creating this impasse.
"The owners want an immediate rollback and the players have felt all along that the contracts they signed should be honoured. It's as simple as that," said Schneider.
"The main issue now is: We expect the owners to honour the contracts. We've agreed to go to 50-50. When we get back to the table, what it's going to (come down to) is how do we allow the owners to honour the contracts and get to 50-50?"
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