2012 NHL Lockout: NHLPA Tables Their Response With Meetings Expected To Continue Tomorrow
The National Hockey League, and NHL Players Association were back at the bargaining table for their first official bargaining session since December 13th, 2012. The NHLPA had a comprehensive proposal in hand, which was presented to the league.
After the National Hockey League and NHL Players' Association met early Sunday afternoon for an informational session, the league received a "comprehensive proposal" from the players late Monday evening. The NHL kick started talks late last week when they sent a 288 page revised proposal to Donald Fehr via email. The NHL changed their stance on few key issues in this proposal, by moving max contract lengths to six years, and changing the year-to-year variance to 10%, up from 5% in their previous proposal.
The league and union met for about three hours today where the NHLPA tabled their own offer, which will be reviewed by the NHL throughout tonight. They are expected to reconvene tomorrow morning and the league is expected to have a response to the union's proposal.
While it appears that the sides may finally be at the serious negotiations stage, there is still a lot of work to be done before we get back to seeing regular season games. However, the league did mention that if the collective bargaining agreement were to be settled in the coming days, they wouldn't rule out adding 3-4 more games to the schedule, which would add well over $80 million dollars to the revenue pot. While it may be a long shot, it is still a possibility at this point.
But for now, we enjoy our New Year's Eve, and hope for the best when the league responds to the proposal tomorrow morning.
