League, Players Association meeting set again for Monday -NHL Lockout Update
The National Hockey League (NHL) and Players’ Association, after meeting on Sunday following a fresh proposal by the former party, are reported to be back on the negotiation table and have set Monday as the next day to continue talks on a new collective
bargaining agreement.
According to reports about the most recent proposal made by the league, which was kept a secret up until now, there have been major changes that may turn around the series of events in the last few months for the better. The league wants the next deal to
be one that would last a minimum of 10 years, avoiding another situation like this one as this lockout is the second one in less than a decade.
The league and Players’ Association talked via telephone on Saturday and came face-to-face for the first time in weeks due to a severe deadlock. Finally, the league seems to have realized that not compromising on any of their points would lead to a total
deadlock, and looking at the most recent proposal by the NHL, many things are much better than before.
All NHL games of the 2012-2013 regular season have been cancelled out through January 14th, which means that over 600 games that would have been played up until that point are no more. It will be interesting to see whether the league and Players’
Association will finally be able to work something out or not in the upcoming days.
Sources are citing the fact that if both sides are able to agree on major aspects of what could turn out to be the next collective bargaining agreement, than fans can expect to see a regular season as soon as January 19th if everything works up
to expectations.
The fresh deal seems to be one that will set the contract length caps at six years, which bumps up the limit by one from the previously set limit of five. Arbitration has also been kept at the same level and increases in annual salary increases have also
gone up to 10 percent in total.
Updates should be expected in the next coming 2-3 days.
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