{coyotes} Report: Some GMs wish to 'dismantle' their team

Friday, 4 January 2013

{coyotes} Report: Some GMs wish to 'dismantle' their team

Apply for a low interest credit card at Creditcards.com

It wasn't only some bait-and-switch over the language surrounding punishment rules around tinkering with HRR that riled up the locked-out players Thursday evening, as the momentum built from days of serious negotiations hit an abrupt and disconcerting impasse.

According to a New York Post report from Larry Brooks, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman infuriated the players with whom he's bargaining at league headquarters when he said that a number of general managers had informed him that they regret some of the player contracts they had signed and would welcome to chance to "dismantle" their clubs.

Those GMs, whom Bettman refused to name despite persistence from the players at the meeting, would get such an opportunity if the league's proposed $60-million salary cap, with two amnesty buyouts this summer, becomes a reality for 2013-14.

Representing the players' union during Friday's mediation talks are Chris Campoli, Mathieu Darche, Shane Doan, Andrew Ference, Ron Hainsey, Jamal Mayers, George Parros, Kevin Westgarth. Martin St. Louis was in attendance Thursday but not Friday.

Brooks' sources told him that the players responded with "a mixture of anger and skepticism, demanding to know the identity of these alleged GM's." Bettman refused to name names.

The Montreal Canadiens have the most money already allotted for the 2013-14 season, with 16 players committed to earn $60,160,476. The Tampa Bay Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks round out that season's five most cap-strapped clubs; each of those teams has committed more than $57.2 million in salaries.

In the wake of the alleged incident, the NHLPA called for a re-vote to empower union chief Donald Fehr with the ability to file a "disclaimer of interest" on the players' behalf.

The NHL and the PA are meeting separately with a federal mediator Friday, but no formal bargaining sessions have been scheduled.