Donald Fehr was expected to deliver a fire and brimstone speech to the media masses in New York City on Thursday night after NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the NHL owners opted not to show up for a scheduled bargaining session.
Instead, deputy commissioner Bill Daly and attorney Bob Batterman were the main representatives as they met with 16 NHLPA members along with the Fehr brothersDonald and Stevefor roughly an hour. The NHLPA made an offer and Daly quickly exited, headed toward the NHL offices around 6 p.m., so most assumed those were ominous signs.
Instead, Fehr indicated that the players had come to a complete agreement about the make whole provision and were, for the first time, completely in accordance on splitting up revenues. That meant the players had agreed to 300 million in make whole money and had also agreed to supply the money for their pension plan.
With that, it appeared the two sides had agreed on divvying up the revenues, and the train was firmly on the tracks.
Furthermore, the NHLPA proposed to meet the NHL in the middle on the CBA term length: the league was looking for a 10-year deal and the NHLPA proposed an eight-year contract with an opt-out after six years if the terms werent working out for the players.
The players also moved on player contract length, but didnt meet the NHLs request for a five-year maximum termwith seven year deals possible for players re-signing with their current teams.
Instead, the NHLPA proposed a maximum contract of eight years in length and agreed to utilize the five percent variability in deals over seven years in length with some other conditions included.
We think there is a complete agreement on dollars, said Fehr. There shouldnt be much reason why we cant get an agreement in the near term. Players have gone a very, very long way players have done far and away the lions share of the movement here.
The players responded comprehensively to the various that have been brought up at the meetings over the last few days.
That was the first time an individual from either side had uttered the phrase complete agreement and thats not insignificant given the 80 plus days of discord the NHL lockout has wrought upon those that love the game. So expectations were at least somewhat promising, even if it has appeared the NHL and NHLPA have used different calculators throughout the negotiation.
Instead, the NHL responded with a phone call less than an hour later that reached voice mail, and the message left for Fehr indicated the NHLPA offer was unacceptable and that something had been taken off the table.
The phone call was made by Daly to Steve Fehr, and certainly didnt sound like it was of the rosy variety.
Several players have expected over the last few weeks that the owners fully planned to pull the make whole provision from the table during the painstaking negotiation process. That might now be the case with more December game cancellations and perhaps a realistic date where the 2012-13 NHL season will be cancelled likely coming in the next few days.