NHL, union not expected to meet this weekend

After the dramatic collapse of talks on Thursday, it looks like the NHL and union will allow for a bit of a cooling off period.

The two sides will not meet over the weekend, according to Sportsnet’s John Shannon. However, they might still correspond.

NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr presented the owners with an offer on Thursday that he thought might lead to the end of this lockout. Fehr felt that, among other things, there was a complete agreement on “dollars.” However, the owners promptly rejected that offer and disagreed with the notion that the two sides were close.

Bettman accused NHLPA excecutive director Donald Fehr of “spinning us all into an emotional frenzy.” He said that the owners expected the players to give them a yes or no response to the owners demands on three key areas: five-year player contract limits, a “longer the better” CBA, and compliance issues related to transitioning to a new agreement (e.g. buyouts, cap on escrow).

As a result, they did not react favorably to the players choosing to instead present them with a new offer.

The league has pulled the concessions that they made over the past week off the table, including the Make Whole proposal in its entirety.

With that in mind, it is hard to say how much of a gap there will be to close when the two sides finally resume talks.