After a day of CBA talks, the NHLPA tabled a counter offer to the NHL which the league rejected. Addressing the media for the second time tonight, NHLPA executive director Don Fehr said the NHL left a voicemail saying the NHLPA's offer was not acceptable.
In response to the NHL's rejection Fehr said, "This looks like it's not going to be resolved in the immediate future."
Fehr went on to say that he doesn't know when the two sides will meet again.
Deputy commissioner Bill Daly, along with NHL general counsel Bob Batterman had been meeting with Fehr and brother Steve Fehr along with a group of players before the meetings broke off.
The NHLPA tabled a new collective agreement proposal Thursday evening which they thought addressed the NHL's concerns. Fehr told the media following the meeting that the players responded comprehensively.
"The players have gone a very, very long way," said Fehr. "The players have done far and away the lion's share."
In their newest proposal, the players were asking for an eight-year term on an agrement with an opt-out after year six and contracts limited to eight years, with ability to add years mid-term provided maximum length going forward can never exceed eight seasons.
Fehr said the two sides had agreed on the significant money issues, that includes accepting the NHL's Make Whole offer.
The owner-player only dynamic was terminated earlier in the day as the players insisted the negotiations once again be opened up to anyone they want to bring in.
The NHLPA has asked the league to bring mediators back into the process. "They have asked us to consider involving mediators again," Daly confirmed to USA Today. "We won't make a final judgment on that until we hear what they have to say today."
While there was some optimism Wednesday, the mood in New York has been mixed Thursday. "All I can tell you is there's a really bizarre dynamic right now and so many mixed signals coming from both sides," tweeted TSN Insider Bob McKenzie Thursday morning.
"On one hand, don't think they're far from agreement on principle issues. But on flip side, clearly a sense this thing is hanging by a thread," TSN's Pierre LeBrun said on Twitter.
The group dynamic was smaller as there were no NHL owners in the negotiating session. Both Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment chairman Larry Tannenbaum and True North Sports & Entertainment chairman Mark Chipman left New York before Thursday's negotiations began.
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.
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.
TSN's Aaron Ward said Thursday via Twitter that it didn't look like the NHLPA would be putting the latest proposal to a full vote.
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