League, Players' Association expected to meet Tuesday -NHL Update
After meeting in the wee hours of Saturday night and continuing till Sunday morning at an undisclosed location, the National Hockey League (NHL) and Players’ Association are set to meet once again on Tuesday, according to latest reports by insiders.
Following the last meeting, it seems as if both sides were continuously talking over the phone and have now scheduled another meeting to keep the process going in order to get a deal on and save what remains of the 2012-2013 NHL regular season.
"We had a series of meetings (Saturday) and exchanged views on the most important issues separating us," NHL deputy commissioner, Bill Daly, said Sunday. "We plan to meet again sometime early this week."
It has been eight straight weeks now ever since the previous collective bargaining agreement came to an end on September 15, 2012, and has both sides including fans on the edge. The 2012 NHL Winter Classic, which was scheduled between the Detroit Red Wings
and Toronto Maple Leafs was also cancelled, but some sources are terming their still being enough cushion to have it revived.
The last offer made by the league was a 50-50 one, which was termed to be more than compensating for the players by team owners and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, but the labour side of the story categorically rejected it along with putting forth three proposals
of their own. All three were surprisingly denied in a matter of minutes, surprising the whole world as to the uncompromising attitude of the league.
Another aspect of the tussle between the two stakeholders is that the labour union is looking for the league to honour the contracts made with players prior to the lockout coming into effect. According to them, they should continue to be honoured since teams
willingly signed them on prior to the lockout and if not, could have waiting after a new deal came into place.
It will be interesting to see how both sides work things out as fans and players all over North America are losing hope and may just shift their attention towards something else if nothing significant comes out of their meeting.
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