Players' Association gearing up to make counterproposal, continue discussions -NHL Update
While nothing can be said about the National Hockey League (NHL) getting a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) before the current labour deal expires on September 15th, the Players’ Association is gearing up towards making a counterproposal
of their own along with continuing discussions with the league.
Both sides continued negotiating on a new deal on Tuesday in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and according to the NHLPA executive director, Donald Fehr, player discipline was a hot topic between the two stakeholders.
"The principal topic was issues relating to discipline and there was a good exchange of views on all kinds of areas," Fehr said. "I think, like a lot of subjects, this is one that will come up in future negotiating sessions. I'm not going to get into the
specifics of what was talked about or anything like that at this stage. It wouldn't be productive for the process."
The meeting lasted for three straight hours in which many other topics along with player discipline were discussed. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman believes that they were good in nature and hopefully, a deal should be reached soon if things continue the way
they are.
"We've had good discussions across the table," Bettman said. "I think the lines of communication have been good. The 'temperature in the room' has been good. The process continues."
A counterproposal from the NHLPA will definitely be a milestone in the talks on a new labour deal and hopefully, both sides will not go into a deadlock over the issues. Some analysts are on the edge saying that there potentially may be a deadlock due to
the nature of the league’s previous proposal while the Players’ Association will have something totally different in mind.
The negotiation sessions between the NHL and NHLPA are planned to continued on Wednesday through Thursday before a weekend break is taken.
10 players were with Donald Fehr on the occasion along with special assistant to the executive director, Mathieu Schneider.
Bettman had deputy commissioner Bill Daly along with senior V.P. of hockey operations Colin Campbell and Brendan Shanahan along with a number of other executive on his side.
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