Gary Bettman rolled out comments that indicated a Nov. 2 start date could preserve an 82-game season, but that might leave you wondering about other timelines.
In a series of Tweets, TSN’s Bob McKenzie laid out a fairly specific series of dates that should be relevant to the CBA negotiations.
Here are the dates in chronological order:
Oct. 25 - Is the deadline to get a deal done. That gives the two sides nine days to hash out the core economic values (and the smaller bits).
Oct. 26 - The day training camps would need to start so that the Nov. 2 opening night could work.
Nov. 2 - Potentially the new opening night. McKenzie and others report that the schedule would kick off from that point instead of reverting to canceled dates.
April 13 - The season wouldn’t end on this date. Instead, the league would add games from this point to reach the 82 games played mark.
Final week of June - The Stanley Cup finals could go as late as that week if the season kicks off on Nov. 2.
Anyway, that’s a road map of what could happen if the two sides get a deal done by that Oct. 25 deadline.
As far as that goes, McKenzie was ambivalent:
My take: Too early to say how NHLPA will react to NHL offer but I suspect we're in for 7 to 10 days of really intense bargaining sessions.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) October 16, 2012