SB Nation Seattle - Frozen Grounds: Ongoing coverage of Seattle's bid to bring the NHL to town

Frozen Grounds: Stuck in a never-ending NHL limbo

2012-11-25T19:00:56Z

Oh, Seattle. Be happy that you don't have an NHL team right now. Though, if this pattern keeps up, you will also be able to enjoy the frustration, ambivalence, and idiocy that an NHL lockout can bring you when you finally get an NHL team of your own.

The worst part about this for many isn't so much that there's a lockout going on, but that it's the third lockout in less than 20 years. In 1994-1995, they played a shortened season. In 2004-2005, they canceled it. As of right now, for the 2012-2013 season, all regular season games have been canceled through 14 December. The NHL All-Star Weekend that was supposed to be in Columbus this year has also been canceled. And the Winter Classic, which was scheduled to be played in Michigan Stadium between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings has also been canceled.

If there's a season, it'll be a shortened one. They didn't kill the 2004-2005 season until 16 February. In 1995, they came to an agreement on 13 January, and were playing games a week later on 20 January. There have been rumors of the NHL killing the season much sooner than that his time around, but that's all they are - rumors.

At this point, there are no concrete facts to talk about. It's all "he-said / he-said" things going on. The NHL says that the NHLPA isn't willing to make concessions. And the NHLPA is saying that the NHL isn't willing to negotiate about anything at all. Who you choose to believe probably depends upon your general world-view. Oh, they're still talking, but that's about all anyone can say with any sort of authority.

And many of the fans have had about enough. The longer this drags on, the more they become disenfranchised, and the more they start feeling ambivalent about the league returning. It's not that fans don't love the NHL, or love the sport of hockey. But as this is the third time many fans have gone through this, they're wondering if it's worth sticking around for the next lockout. And the next one after that.

A majority of fans are blaming the league commissioner, Gary Bettman, as he's been the only constant in all of these lockout situations. No one is entirely sure how much autonomy he has in regards to what team ownerships want from him - and the same can be said about Donald Fehr with the NHLPA. But, as he's not well-liked, anyways, Bettman makes an easy scapegoat - even for the players, who would rather blame him than the owners and governors of the teams they play for.

In the peculiar situation of the Phoenix Coyotes, who are still owned by the NHL, those players blaming Bettman really are calling out their own owners. But they're the only ones. No other players have the courage to call out their team's ownership for this mess.

But the NHL is doing the same back. They're not calling out the players they employ, but the NHLPA leadership. Fehr is not at all liked by the NHL owners and governors, and they're not afraid to try to blame NHLPA's Executive Director for the lockout - even though it was the owners locking out the players, and not the players striking. An interesting facet to point out here is that many of the people who own these NHL teams also own NBA teams as well.

It's all very murky, there are few actual facts to talk about, and none of it is really worth writing about. But the hockey media that covers the NHL has to write about something, so they keep writing about this. Even as I reluctantly am now. So there's a bit of NHL lockout burnout going on, since that's pretty all there is to read and write about.

The true horror about this situation is this: it's been said that the NHL wants this collective bargaining agreement to last for five years. If that happens, things could very well end up like it is now when that CBA is up. Since they haven't been able to figure out this is a bad idea in three tries, then why wouldn't they give it another shot? If they think that anyone will want to willingly do this again in five years, they're nuts.

Whether this ends in a canceled season or if it ends as a shortened season, the NHL fan base may be decimated for a while. There will be fans that come right back, regardless, but probably not as many as before. It's hard to try to care about a sport that doesn't seem to think much of its fans.

And, really, who can blame them if they don't come back?

Frozen Grounds: The NHL And NHLPA Public Relations War

2012-10-21T17:40:54Z

This past week was quite the eventful one for the NHL.

On Monday, it was revealed by Deadspin that the NHL was paying Luntz Global - a noted Republican market research firm - to do focus groups to determine what sort of public relations strategy they should incorporate into their overall collective bargaining agreement (CBA) strategy. The hockey side of the internet was in quite an uproar over it - particularly Puck Daddy, who mentioned that one of their posts was taken without permission for this focus groupfiasco.

Apparently, the NHL is actually concerned about what their paying customers think, after all.

Perhaps coincidentally, by Tuesday, the NHL publicly released an offer to the NHLPA. One that made much of having a 50-50 hockey related revenue (HRR) split, and starting a full 82-game season on 2 November. Many fans who had previously stated that they were done with the NHL immediately wanted the NHLPA to sign it, no matter what it looked like.

The NHLPA took a couple of days to look it over. The public relations aspect to this all had swung in favor of the NHL, when before, most fans were favoring the NHLPA. Many had speculated that if the NHLPA turned this offer down, that they would become public enemy number one in the eyes of the fans.

When the NHLPA came back to discuss things, they outdid the NHL. They came back with three scenarios for the NHL to look over. The NHLPA was interested in negotiating from what the NHL had offered, and the NHLPA gave them three different avenues from which to choose from.

The NHL chose to disregard all of them. In fact, according Sidney Crosby in the NHLPA press conference that followed this meeting last Thursday, the NHL didn't spend much time looking over the NHLPA's proposals. The NHL's press conference, with league commissioner Gary Bettman, was very grim.

Ultimately, it was all political theater for the benefit of the fans. However, there is one ray of light that came out of the entire deal. One of the NHLPA's proposals included that 50-50 HRR split. So, in the end, the NHL and the NHLPA do have something to work off of, should real negotiations occur. Phone conversations are on-going, but no formal meetings have been scheduled as of yet.

In the midst of this public PR battle between the NHL and the NHLPA, an unexpected thing happened. The City of Edmonton killed their new arena deal on Wednesday. The Katz Group, which owns the Edmonton Oilers, had been in talks with the City of Edmonton about a fully public financed arena.

Daryl Katz's little PR trip to Seattle, however, did not sit well with Edmonton. Katz wanted more from Edmonton, and was using Seattle to try to squeeze it out of them. Well, that backfired, and the city pulled the arena deal off the table.

But don't get your hopes up. Even if Katz wanted to move the team, just to be spiteful, the NHL would likely pressure him to sell it instead. Edmonton makes a lot of money for the league, and it would be horrifically bad press for a solid and storied Canadian team to leave for an unknown market, such as Seattle. And even if he refused to sell, he'd still need to get permission from the Board of Governors to move - and getting approval from them to move the Oilers isn't very likely.

On top of that, Chris Hansen has publicly mentioned the difficulties they would have in getting an NHL team to Seattle first. Their situation is set up for NBA first, with the NHL to follow. Key Arena could temporarily host an NHL team for maybe a year, on the outside maybe two, but that's probably the extent of it.

So while at first glance this seems like a great thing for Seattle, in the end, it's more of a headache for the NHL than anything else.

As for the CBA negotiations, there's still time to cobble together a deal by the 2 November start date. How likely that is, however, is questionable. It all comes down to how badly both sides want to have a full season. This coming week ought to be fairly interesting in regards to that.

Frozen Grounds: NHL team rumored for sale

2012-10-01T17:00:47Z

Forget about the Edmonton Oilers. They aren't going anywhere. Let's talk about the New York Islanders instead.

Stop me if this sounds at all familiar....

The New York Post broke the news yesterday that former Islander Pat Lafontaine was approached by investors to buy into an ownership group to purchase the team to keep in on Long Island. According to the Post:

Islanders owner Charles Wang, who is seeking a new arena and has vowed not to play a single game at the aged Nassau Coliseum beyond the July 2015 end of his lease, has quietly let it be known that he is willing to sell the franchise if the price is right, sources close to the NHL said.

Now, the New York Post is not the most reliable source of news, but it's been speculated for a while that Wang would either move or sell at the end of the arena lease. Nassau County refuses to build a new arena for the team. And they aren't even all that interested in updating the Nassau Coliseum, having voted down a $400 million referendum in August 2011.

Just last week, a task force released plans to update Nassau and its surroundings. The plans call for over $300 million in improvements. But, at this time, there's no financing to back it up.

Under the plan, developed by a task force of the Association for a Better Long Island, a private developer would spend $100 million to renovate and expand the existing Coliseum. The height of the arena would increase by as much as 25 feet, and there would be between 17,000 and 20,000 seats -- compared with just over 16,000 now.

The site would include a minor league ballpark, a parking garage with room for 6,800 cars that would join the Coliseum and the Long Island Marriott, a new indoor ice rink for practice and public use, and 70,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. West Hempstead architect Angelo Francis Corva, who designed the plan, left about 25 acres on two parcels undeveloped for a future phase.

If nothing is done to Nassau Coliseum, then the next option is to move the team. In theory, the best location would be to the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn - the new home of the NBA's Nets. However, in its practical application, it's doubtful that the New York Rangers will allow another NHL team to move into the city limits of New York.

An alternative view, ESPN had an article last week that NHL owners may prefer expansion for Seattle, rather than relocation. The NHL gets more money from expansion fees than it does from relocation fees. But, as Greg Wyshynski of Puck Daddy says:

As I've said before, my pet theory is that Seattle gets a relocated franchise and that Quebec and Greater Ontario (i.e. a second Toronto team) are the ones who shovel money into the NHL's account for an expansion fee. But Levin is thinking expansion rather than relocation for his potential Seattle team. (Which, of course, will be called the Sasquatch, per our request.)

Many people are expecting that if Toronto gets a second team, it'll likely be through expansion. In the most recent realigment scenario that the NHL put forth, it was unbalanced, leaving room for two possible expansion teams. Toronto will likely get one, but we'll have to wait and see who gets the other.

An NHL team in Seattle is something that won't break the collective hearts of hockey fans in Vancouver, either.

A Seattle NHL team would give the Canucks their first true geographic rivalry. The closest NHL markets to Vancouver are Calgary and Edmonton, and the once entertaining spark between the clubs has been downgraded somewhat, with the Flames and Oilers struggling near, or at, the bottom of the Western Conference for the past few years.

“I wouldn’t have any objections or reservations at all to a team in Seattle. It’s a great sports town and a great city to visit,” Canucks general manager Mike Gillis told Vancouver Sun sports reporter Elliott Pap Wednesday.

“It would put a team closer than any other team in our time zone. I think we can enhance their business and they can probably enhance ours. So I think it would be great for us.”

For now, the New York Islanders will leave people speculating about relocation. And, they're almost like an expansion team. The Islanders have only made playoffs six times in the past 20 years, the last time being in 2007.

Frozen Grounds: Week One Of The NHL Lockout

2012-09-22T20:36:53Z

It's been a full week, and the NHL has not met with the NHL Players' Association (NHLPA). Reportedly, there have been some phone calls, but other than that, no meetings have happened. The NHL has officially canceled all preseason games through 30 September.

Alex Ovechkin, the Russian captain and star of the Washington Capitals, has suggested that he may not come back to North American to play if the NHL gets its way and rolls back player salaries. Ovechkin has a lot of influence with other Russian players, so others my try to follow him, if he does that. However, there's been some confusion as to whether he can legally do that or not, as he does have eight years left on his contract with the Capitals.

As of today, almost 60 NHLers have signed with teams in ten European countries. [MAP] Many are still taking a wait-and-see approach, and others are organizing individual charity tournaments. In the province of Quebec, two players are organizing a caravan league that plays only on the weekends.

Up until yesterday, NHLers were not allowed to play in the Swedish Elite League (or Elitserien). The SEL had said that if NHLers wanted to play there, then they needed to sign for the entire season. No out-clauses were going to be allowed. NHLers had been able to sign with the lower league, Allsvenskan, but not with the Eliteserien.

An anti-trust ruling in Sweden changed all of that. Within hours of the Swedish Competition Authority's ruling, an SEL team signed one NHLer, while another team was reportedly in discussions with another player. There was talk of an appeal by the Eliteserien, but no one's sure at this time if the anti-trust ruling will be overturned.

What may become a stumbling block for NHLers signing elsewhere is the International Ice Hockey Federation's (IIHF) international transfer agreements. According to the Toronto Star:

The basic reasons for the transfer card process are:

-To have all international transfers accounted for

-To protect clubs from players under contract simply leaving or players who have not fulfilled contractual obligations (like returning a car which was given to him by the club)

-Making sure players who are suspended in one league don't jump leagues and continue playing while suspended

The club that signs the player begins the transfer card process.

This goes through an approval process with the IIHF. There have been rumors that, since there has been an unprecedented delay in giving Edmonton Oilers' top prospect Nail Yakupov his transfer card, that perhaps the NHL has been trying to deliberately throw a wrench into the works. The NHL naturally denies being a part of the process, and the IIHF won't comment.

The NHL has no official role with the IIHF - not even an advisory one. However, NHL ownership decides whether or not NHL players will be able to participate in the Olympics and other international tournaments. And the IIHF wants the visibility that NHL players bring to their events, then they'll make an effort to stay on the good side of the NHL.

The NHL and the NHLPA have a meeting scheduled for Monday, 24 September, to discuss last season's hockey related revenues (HRR).

Frozen Grounds: The NHL Lockout Is Coming

2012-09-15T19:11:02Z

Unless you've been living under a rock - or you only watch ESPN - then you should know that the NHL will be locking out its players tonight. Officially, it starts at 12:00 am Eastern, also known as 16 September. Many hockey fans are battling through the five stages of grief at the moment: denial, anger, bargaining (or desperation), depression, and acceptance. Their favorite legal drug will be taken away from them, and many are at a loss.

Beginning yesterday, teams started assigning players to the minors in preparation for what's to come. Those who needed to go through waivers passed today without the threat of another team trying to take them. Those too young or not qualified to play in the minor leagues will play for the major junior teams and their college teams. Established NHLers are still formulating plans as to what they might do - though, a few have already figured that out.

For a league that's claiming to be poor, their signing spree makes that claim rather hypocritical. Especially when you consider that they want to limit contracts as much as possible. You would think that they'd put off signing players until a new agreement that benefits them more would be in place, but that's simply not the case.

As of yesterday, by 5:30-ish pm Eastern....

Furthermore, in the month leading up to tomorrow's #NHL lockout, teams have spent $339.925M locking up players before potential CBA changes.
— CapGeek (@capgeek) September 14, 2012

To give that $339.925M figure some perspective, teams combined to spend $287.803M on "free-agent frenzy" day, July 1.
— CapGeek (@capgeek) September 14, 2012

The NHL's website does have some things about the labor negotiations, but not very much. At this point, no one is saying a lot, to be honest. The NHL Players' Association website does have quite a lot on the topic. And for you baseball fans, you'll see a familiar face - Donald Fehr is currently heading up negotiations for the NHLPA.

Here's what the hockey media are saying about the situation:

So it’s about a $1-billion difference over five years, or $210-million a season. That’s down from the previous difference of about $320-million a season, so they are getting closer.

Now the thing to remember is that’s all based off of 7.1 per cent growth. No one truly knows if the NHL makes more or less than that going forward.

-Measuring the NHL-NHLPA divide: Oh, about $1-billion, James Mirtle, The Globe and Mail

Q: IT SEEMS AS IF LABOR STRIFE IS COMMON TO THE NHL. IS THAT TRUE?

A: It has been during the past two decades. Players struck in 1992, a walkout settled on the 11th day after 30 games were postponed. A 103-day lockout in 1994-95 led to the cancellation of 468 games, reducing each team's schedule from 82 games to 48. Another lockout eliminated the 2004-05 season, making the NHL the first major pro sports league in North America to lose an entire season to a labor dispute. It was settled on the 301st day, July 13, 2005, after players agreed to a salary cap.

-NHL lockout: What you need to know, James Blum, Associated Press

Q. Why would they strike again so soon?

A. It's not a strike, it's a lockout. You know, like the NBA and NFL just did? Just like that.

Also, we suspect the owners kind of like it, being that they don't lose as much money by not paying the players and end up getting a crap-ton more of it in the end.

-How to explain NHL lockout to your non-hockey friends: Puck Daddy’s Guide, Greg Wyshynski, Puck Daddy blog (Yahoo! Sports)

Our savings with an NHL lockout? $1,880, and I think that number is soft. I lowered the bar bill amounts under protest from my husband. (I sign the bar tabs, they’re higher.)

-How much will you save if there is an NHL lockout?, Sarah Sprague, freelance writer

We Are The Champions

The Norfolk Admirals, Tampa Bay's AHL affiliate, captured the Calder Cup this past spring after defeating the Toronto Marlies in four games in the Caalder Cup Final. Some familiar names on the Admirals are former Canadian World Junior goalie Dustin Tokarski and former Flames draft pick and pawn in the Dion Phaneuf trade Keith Aulie.

The Marlies beat out the Abbotsford (BC) Heat, the Flames' AHL affiliate, in five games in the Western Conference Semifinals, ending their somewhat surprising playoff run.

-Better Know a Hockey League: The AHL, Hayley Mutch, Matchsticks and Gasoline - an SB Nation Calgary Flames blog

Barring an 11th-hour miracle - which isn't at all likely since the NHL and the NHLPA are reportedly not meeting today- or they come to an agreement within the next two weeks, the NHL will almost certainly not start on time this season.

Frozen Grounds: Hockey Fans Are A Unique Breed

2012-09-06T21:00:31Z

With the NHL collective bargaining agreement talks stalled, and with none planned in the near future, it's looking a little grim for hockey fans right now. It's been expected by much of the hockey media on Twitter that the NHL would start late this year - probably not until December or January - and that's looking more likely at this point. Fans are trying to figure out what to do in the meantime.

A lockout is particularly difficult for hockey fans, since we're like drug addicts; we need our fix, and nothing else will do. Oh, another sport will help pass the time, but it's just not hockey. Literally, as soon as one season is over, people will start asking about when the next will begin. A lot of that is due to our love for the sport itself, but some of that has to do with the nature of hockey fans.

Hockey fans love their sport in a way that's very unlike any other sports. Of course, every sport has their diehard fans, their stats heads, their Pollyannas, and those girls who don't care about the sport but really just want to date the players (in hockey, they're called puck bunnies; but don't ever call a woman who's a genuine hockey fan that, even as a joke). But hockey fandom goes beyond all of that.

Now, I grew up a football and baseball fan (go ~~Seahawks~~ Huskies! and...uh...Mariners...?), and got into hockey just after high school. Hockey fans are simply not like fans of any of the other major North American sports. Perhaps it's the Canadian influence, or maybe it's because of the players themselves, but a fan's first allegiance is to the sport, not to the team of their choice.

It's a very profoundly different way to look at things. Thinking "sport first" creates a feeling of family among hockey fans. If you run into a fellow hockey fan, you're immediately pals - regardless of team affiliation. It's instant bonding. Even if the other person happens to be a fan of a team you absolutely despise, it almost doesn't even matter. The important thing is that you both like hockey.

Can you imagine Boston Red Sox fans bonding with New York Yankees fans over their shared love of baseball? Or some Michigan Wolverines alumni bonding with Ohio State Buckeyes alumni over the awesomeness of college football? It's just not going to happen. Ever.

But it happens with hockey fans all the time.

And the players do play some part in this. They are some of the most down to earth professional athletes out there. There's very little room for ego in hockey - in fact, putting a player before his team for any reason is very much frowned upon - and that carries over into their off-ice activities. They try to make the fans feel like a part of their team, regardless of where they play.

Don't get me wrong; fans do occasionally get ugly with one another at games. But those are probably more the exceptions than the rule, and that sort of thin often happens in the heat of the moment rather than being premeditated action. However, in the offseason, all fans are equal in the eyes of hockey, regardless of team. This time of year, a good natured ribbing is usually as far as things go, for the most part.

Some of this has to do with the small-community feeling that we all share. The NHL has the smallest fan base of all of the major sports in North America, and hockey fans are acutely aware of that fact. Some people even consider it a "niche" sport. So when we run into someone who shares our passion for the game, we know we're not alone and must acknowledge that fact somehow.

And it doesn't matter if you're new to the game or a retired NHLer. Everyone's more than happy to talk to you about hockey. And right about now, everyone's looking for someone to commiserate with about the lack of hockey (is it October yet?) and the probable NHL lockout this season.

Wear an NHL team t-shirt out shopping one day, and see if anyone talks to you. You probably won't be able to get back home again without at least one random person asking you who your favorite player is. Because a fellow hockey fan will probably feel compelled to ask or acknowledge you somehow.

So if you're a hockey fan, trust me, you're not alone.

Frozen Grounds: Where NHLers Will Go If There's A Long Lockout

2012-08-24T22:00:28Z

So what happens if the NHL owners locks out their players?

If the last lockout in 2004-2005 was any indication, most players will sit for a month or two to see if anything will get resolved. Already, prospect tournaments that were supposed to run in September have been canceled. But season ticket packages and tickets to preseason are either will soon go on sale or already are. So that sends a bit of a mixed message to fans at this point. But the current collective bargaining agreement ends on 15 September, so it's business as usual for NHL teams until then.

After a month or perhaps two of being locked out, players will start finding other leagues to play in. Unlike the NFL, there are plenty of hockey leagues for NHLers to join. Most will probably go to Europe, and if they're smart, they'll have escape clauses in their contracts that will allow them to leave the European team of their choice in the event that the NHL season is saved.

There are a number of leagues in Europe which will make room for NHLers looking for a temporary home. The five most popular will most likely be the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL - primarily Russia, but also has teams in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, and Slovakia), the Swedish Elite League (the Elitserien, or the SEL), SM-Liiga (in Finland), the German Hockey League (Deutsche Eishockey Liga, or the DEL), and the National League A (or the NLA in Switzerland). Others may try the American Hockey League (AHL) and the ECHL, which are both North American minor leagues. The last lockout showed that NHLers will play in any league that's available to them, even if it's AA-level minor league hockey.

There are many other hockey leagues in Europe of varying skill levels, of course. Of the others, the Czech Extraliga and the Slovak Extraliga may see a significantly increased number of foreign players. But close to every country in Europe has an ice hockey league, some are better than others, and most could have at least one or two NHLers playing in it.

To give you a better idea of where players may be headed, maybe take the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) current world rankings into account for the best men's hockey programs - that is, national teams from various age groups:

Russia
Finland
Czech Republic
Sweden
Canada
Slovakia
United States
Norway
Switzerland
Germany

(If there is an NHL lockout, besides the major junior teams in Washington State - the Everett Silvertips, the Seattle Thunderbirds, the Spokane Chiefs, the Tri-City Americans, and the Portland Winterhawks - and the university club teams, there are also an AHL team in Abbotsford, British Columbia, and ECHL teams in Boise, Idaho, and Anchorage, Alaska.)

The KHL is widely considered to be the second best professional hockey league on the planet after the NHL. The league also has 26 teams, so it's also the largest upper tier European league as well. That will probably be the top destination for NHLers looking for work, should they need to.

The downside to all of this is that the NHLers will get preference over the regulars in their various leagues. There will be this cascading effect of pushing the guys with the least talent out of spots, and out of getting paid. Perhaps that isn't so bad from a fan perspective, but it's still not an ideal situation for anyone involved.

Frozen Grounds: The Current State Of The NHL's Labor Negotiations

2012-08-17T19:00:17Z

The NHL and the NHL Players' Association (NHLPA) are in the midst of labor negotiations. The details of which are as much hearsay as they are fact, for all anyone knows. However, how they got to this point goes back to the end of the 2004-2005 full-season lockout.

On 16 February 2005, the NHL officially canceled a season. There was no Stanley Cup champion that year for the first time since 1919, when the Seattle Metropolitans and Montreal Canadiens series final had to be canceled due to the Spanish flu epidemic. The Stanley Cup itself is engraved with the words "2004-2005 Season Not Played" in the space where the team that won the Stanley Cup that year would've had their names engraved. It was the first time a major North American sport had canceled an entire season due to labor issues.

The biggest thing that the NHL owners wanted to institute a salary cap. Previous to that, the NHL had never had one. Obviously, the players' union didn't want that, so they held out on that one point for as long as possible. There were other, lesser disagreements, but that was the biggest one by far.

The NHL lockout officially ended on 21 July 2005 when the players' union finally agreed to a salary cap system, which tied player salaries to the league's revenues. The 2005-2006 season started on time, and that was, as they say, that. (For a more complete overview of what occurred during the last lockout, please refer to the CBC Sports' website on the topic. It documents all of the goings on eight years ago.)

The biggest problem with the NHL is that the revenue is largely gate-driven. Unlike the NFL and the NBA, the NHL does not have any truly lucrative TV contracts. It's been speculated that perhaps the fact that hockey doesn't translate well onto TV may be key the problem, but it may also have something to do with how the NHL itself is run. Regardless, the NHL's revenues are very dependent upon getting people in the seats at games.

And that leads us to where we are today.

The NHL's initial proposal back in July was not exactly compromising. The NHL wasn't trying to meet the NHLPA in the middle with a reasonable proposal. Instead, what they stated exactly what they wanted, which was very far away from what the NHLPA wants. Naturally. One could see it as a wish list, or as what they expect. However it's viewed, this was their starting point for negotiations:

NHL proposal to players: 1-reduce players hockey related revenues to 46% from 57 %. 2-10 seasons in NHL before being UFA.
— Renaud P Lavoie (@RenLavoieRDS) July 14, 2012

3-contracts limites to 5 years 4-no more salary arbitration. 5- entry-level contract 5 years instead of 3.
— Renaud P Lavoie (@RenLavoieRDS) July 14, 2012

The NHLPA took a month or so to put together a more reasonable proposal, which they presented to the NHL last Tuesday. They were obviously trying to be more compromising than the NHL. They termed their proposal as an alternative proposal, not as a counter-proposal.

(Instead of inserting all of Aaron Wards tweets on the topic - there are 10 of them - I'll just write down the text. You can find the actual tweets on his Twitter page. Aaron Ward is a former NHLer who now works for TSN.)

In NHLPA proposal,the artificial slowing of salary growth by players will go as follows: year 1 will increase by 2%,year 2 by 4% and in year 3 by 6%.If Revenue growth exceeds 10%,anything over 10% is subject to 57% that exists under present system #NHLPA #NHL

Important to remember average revenue growth is 7.1% so this is a three year payroll reduction of $465M to help teams in need. #TSN

Further clarification to NHLPA proposal to limit non player spending by teams. Player concessions in 2005 lowered player costs while non player costs sky rocketed. These costs can be defined as GM/Coaches salaries on down to Jet Fuel. Speaks to proposal theme of shared financial responsibility in the PARTNERSHIP. The extra draft pick for teams in financial trouble is very discretionary and would be mutually agreed upon by NHL/NHLPA on case by case basis with the intent to target the market/team in need. This would be very limited but the pick itself would serve the purpose of helping to revitalize a team. Lastly, a franchise in distress under special circumstances,would be permitted to trade/sell up to $4 million in cap space to another team giving the team a way of getting another 'paycheck'. This would be VERY limited and only available to teams in need. #TSN #CBA

As nothing has been released publicly by both sides, all of this may be viewed as a mix of speculation and fact. The NHL owners have not yet said anything publicly about the proposal, of course. But Commissioner Gary Bettman, their spokesman in this venture, has said that the owners were not happy with the NHLPA's proposal.

As with any sport, this isn't just the owners versus the players. It's also owners versus owners. In the NHL, there can be a large gap between the haves and the have-nots. Those that "have" are likely in charge of what the owners decide; they have the money, so they have more power. In all likelihood, those "have-nots" are probably fairly okay with what the NHLPA has presented, as what the players' union wants also helps out the teams that are struggling financially.

The deadline for this to be decided upon is 15 September, and the NHL owners have already stated that they will lockout the players if nothing is agreed upon by then. Many in the hockey media have been saying for months that the NHL season probably won't start on time. The consensus among much of the media seems to be that the season will start either in December or January, which happened before during 1994-1995 season and its partial lockout.

While there isn't any sort of public timeline in regards to this, it's probably reasonable to expect some news from the NHL owners' side of things sometime next week. There's a lot of posturing going on right now, and they haven't really said much in regards to the NHLPA's offer. Whether this gets done by the 15 September deadline is anyone's guess.

However, here is one interesting article to consider: Gary Bettman's language of NHL labour talks, then & now