Mediators could come back into Talks between League, Players Association -NHL Lockout Update
The National Hockey League (NHL) and Players’ Association failed to build on the new territory they covered in terms of the lockout, but in recent developments after a new deadlock emerged, mediators just might be brought back to settle the issues and bring
about a new labour deal.
Confidence from all ends of the league emerged when players and team owners went into their first candid encounter, but even though they tried to keep all discussions secret, the positive energy that emerged after the eight-hour long meeting certainly had
fans on the edge of their seats and nearly ready to get their jerseys back on.
That hope was short lived after Thursday’s meeting, which broke just one hour in with both sides rejecting each other’s proposals and shocking one another with harsh comments in terms of how they wanted the next deal to look like. There is still a lot of
distance on many issues between the league and Players’ Association, but both sides believe that it will be much better this time around.
At the moment, the league has not approved the use of mediators for the second time now, as the first just was a formality which did not really lead to any deal coming out of the equation. Even owners are willing to give it a try and resorting to it as one
which could be their last option before the Players’ Association would have to go to court over the matter.
According to insiders, the league after negotiations with team owners, decided on backing down on a number of issues that they would not have in the past. They offered $300 million in what could be called their “make-whole” offer, but it is still nearly
$100 million less than what the players were demanding.
Updates should be expected in the next couple of days as both sides will begin working on what options they have left, which are definitely not as much as some might believe, forcing them to work a deal out sooner than later.
It will be interesting to see how this all works out.
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