from Stu Hackel of The Red Light,
With the league uninterested in scheduling any talks with the NHLPA, button up your overcoats.
From Commissioner Gary Bettman’s standpoint, as long as the union declines to use the owners’ last offer as the basis of negotiations, there won’t be any. The fact that the players presented not one but three counter-offers with terms for a split of revenue that were, for the first time, somewhat similar to those proposed by the owners has not mattered. From the NHL’s perspective, the differences between the sides are far more significant than what they have in common, so the owners don’t want to negotiate.
That stance was affirmed by Bettman on Wednesday while taking questions after the announcement of the Islanders’ move to Brooklyn. “We said to them that we are prepared to meet if you want to discuss our offer, or you want to make a new offer,” Bettman remarked. “They have no inclination on doing either, so there really is no point in meeting.”
It’s safe to assume that unless the players come up with an offer that looks very much like the owners’, anything they propose will be dismissed by the league as quickly as the ones the NHLPA presented last week. That trio got all of about 15 minutes of consideration from Bettman and his fellow league negotiators.
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