From my point of view it looks like both parties have been spending the last couple of weeks laying the groundwork for a lawsuit. PA keeps having these meaningless meetings so they can say they are actually bargaining in good faith, while the NHL just sends its lawyer.
Renaud Lavoie @RenLavoieRDS
Steve Fehr a dit que les deux parties se sont parlés aujourd'hui en présence du médiateur. Demain les deux parties vont se parler.
Translation:
Quote:
Steve Fehr said that both parties are spoken today in the presence of the mediator. Tomorrow the two sides will talk.
Renaud Lavoie @RenLavoieRDS: Steve Fehr said that both parties met today with the mediator at one time. No details given. They'll talk face to face or on the phone Fri.
From my point of view it looks like both parties have been spending the last couple of weeks laying the groundwork for a lawsuit. PA keeps having this meaningless meetings so they can say they are actually bargaining in good faith, while the NHL just sends its lawyer.
I'm more optimistic. It seems like this dance is getting close to ending. This should be the final push. Of course, I've been wrong before but I tend to the view that parties (outside of a divorce!) generally act rationally. I don't think the PA or the NHL is going to be able to out bluff the other at this point.
It's not bad news. They can continue to use the mediator to relay offers and discuss getting this thing settled for as long as the mediator agrees to do so.
Maybe this deal has been proposed by the league already?
From the article:
"Let’s call it the Do This Deal or Get Coal in Your Stocking for a Thousand Years deal.
-A nine-year CBA with a seven-year out for either side.
-A six-year contract limit with front-load/back-diving protection and eight-year limits for players who have been with a team for five years.
-Some simple buyout option as long as the buyouts are within the salary cap. "
Pretty much what most people have been proposing on here for the last week at least. It's ingenious how they came up with the proposed 9 year CBA when the owners were proposing 10 and the players 8. Just ingenious!
Mark Spector @SportsnetSpec: The NHLPA wanted mediation. NHL did not, but endured the process. This ending is predictable. No one needs a mediator to spot the middle.
Renaud Lavoie @RenLavoieRDS
On me dit que le médiateur pourrait encore revenir dans le processus. #AJLNH #LNH
Renaud Lavoie @RenLavoieRDS
Mediator is not out of the picture as we speak. #NHLPA #NHL
Jesus this is confusing.
You're telling me...
John Shannon
@JSportsnet
Led to believe that the Mediators are now out of the picture...again...makes you wonder just how close the Feds thought the sides were?
Maybe this deal has been proposed by the league already?
If that gets proposed Fehr will just hold out for more again. But that is probably similar to what ultimately gets signed. The PA would have to propose such an offer, can't see the owners buging considering how the PA moved the goalposts last week.
As a union guy myself, that's just horribly lopsided in favour of the elite, and I don't understand why the rank-and-file would have approved this system.
Yet this is something the PA is still fighting over.
The rank-and-file players are getting screwed by their own union.
