NHL Resumes Player Talks with No End to Lockout in Sight

The National Hockey League (NHL) resumed talks with the players’ association at the first bargaining session in eight days yet nod deal was agreed over a collective bargaining agreement.

The players met with league leadership on Monday night when they spent less than two hours discussing the situation aiming to reach a new agreement that could get the hockey season going.

Donald Fehr, union executive director, said: “We talked about various things. No new proposals were made; they were not expected to be made. We had hoped to engage them in a discussion about the player contracting issues that are so important to the players. At least tonight they were unwilling to do that.”

The league contends that it is waiting for the players to present a full proposal on all major issues including player contracting and core economics.

Following this request, the players’ association asked for a break and the meeting adjourned soon after.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly added: “We’ve never heard a full proposal from them. They have given us a variation of the same proposal on economics a couple of times and there was no change in that position. They are still suggesting that they are moving in our direction on economics, but until we know exactly what their position is on economics now, we think it’s all tied together and would like to hear it all together.

“It’s our position that we’ve made a couple comprehensive proposals in a row. We’d like to know where they are on all of the issues. We asked that they put together a comprehensive proposal for us to consider.”

On Monday night, union representatives, along with 18 players who were in attendance, returned to the players’ association office for further internal discussions.