Experts Downplay Rumours of Lockout Ending Soon -NHL Update
The National Hockey League (NHL) is going through the worst time it has faced in recent years as the league came out of one of its best seasons ever and has suddenly gone dead due to the extensive labour negotiations which have resulted in cancellation of
a major chunk of the hockey year up until now.
After federal mediators failed to, well basically mediate a deal between the league and Players’ Association during these past few days, things took a turn for the worst. When the news came up about how the two stakeholders are now considering bringing the
players and team owners face-to-face, hope of bringing the work stoppage to an end and finally get some hockey going reached new heights once again.
Unfortunately, experts are not being optimistic this time around and do not foresee any significant changes the Tuesday meeting between players and franchise owners might bring about when put in the same room, especially on the first day of things.
It will be the first time ever since negotiations kicked off between the two sides earlier in June and got intense after the previous collective bargaining agreement came to an end on September 15th that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA
executive director, Donald Fehr, will not be taking part in the discussions and leave it up to the real stakeholders.
Owners of six NHL franchises will be participating in the meeting on Tuesday, from the Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins, Calgary Flames, Tampa Bay Lightning, Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs sides.
It is not final as of yet who the players are that will be taking part in the negotiations, but some sources do have their bets on Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks being some of the big names to be on the list.
Excitement is something that every fan out there is feeling at the moment as they do believe the players and team owners will be able to negotiate once and for all, on how the league should be operating in the next upcoming seasons.
Updates should be expected in the next 24 hours.
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