With the more critical labour issues on the docket, NHL owners and players are expected to take part in CBA talks for a third straight day this afternoon in an effort to end the nearly three-month lockout.
And this time, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr will be back in the room.
Sources tell TSN that the owner-player only dynamic has been terminated as the players have insisted the negotiations once again be opened up to anyone they want to bring in. As a result, both Fehr and Bettman are expected to formally rejoin the talks.
After meeting for nearly 10 hours on Tuesday, the two sides went at it for even longer on Wednesday.
The NHL Players' Association submitted another proposal for the NHL to evaluate Wednesday while the league countered on key issues later on. Both sides spent hours in and out of the bargaining room going over issues with talks ending shortly before 1am et.
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly described Wednesday's talks as, "good, candid dialogue" but mentioned that "critical issues" remain unresolved and that he expected those issues to be addressed during Thursday's negotiations.
The league's offer Wednesday night offered a raise in money devoted to the 'make-whole' provision. The number in the latest offer jumped to $300 million, up from $211 million in the league's previous offer. The players had previously asked for $389 million, making the owners' latest offer an exact middle ground between the previous offer and the players' demands. However, of that proposed $300 million only $250 million would go towards a 'make-whole' provision with the remaining $50 million going towards pension funding that would not come out of the players' share.
The proposal submitted was for a 10-year term for the next CBA with an opt-out clause after eight years. The rules governing unrestricted free agency and salary arbitration would remain unchanged from last season. The league did not budge on its request for a five-year term limit on player contracts and held firm to a maximum year-to-year salary variance of five per cent.
The league's offer did, however, offer an exception on contract lengths for the re-signing of free agents. Teams would be allowed to re-sign their own free agents to contracts up to seven years in duration.
Follow TSN.ca and TSN's Hockey Insiders on Twitter for all the latest updates today as they're made available.
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