from Frank Seravalli of TSN,

To poke or not poke the bear: that is the question staring down the NHL Players’ Association as they convene here for a meeting on Wednesday evening.

In this case, that bear is commissioner Gary Bettman and the NHL’s Board of Governors.

The NHLPA has until Sept. 15 to notify the league that the union intends to exercise its option to opt out of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) after this season....

The NHL and NHLPA have been conducting CBA negotiations off and on for the last number of months. Both sides have reported that discussions have been overwhelmingly positive, with some saying that the dialogue and communication has been more constructive and productive than it has been in a decade or more.

In fact, there is even some optimism that a new CBA can be hammered out in the next 10 days before the NHLPA’s deadline to opt out.

If the NHLPA declines, the current CBA will remain in effect for three more seasons, through 2021-22.

The key to remember is that if the NHLPA does indeed opt out this month, nothing would preclude both sides from continuing negotiations over the next months in an effort to agree on a new CBA before it expires on Sept. 15, 2020.

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