If the NHL and its players union are not drafting a new collective-bargaining agreement this weekend, the season will be canceled, Commissioner Gary Bettman said Wednesday in Toronto.
“It’s clear to me that if we’re not working on a written document this weekend, I don’t see how we can play any semblance of a season,” Bettman said. “That was a message I conveyed to the union.”
Union leader Bob Goodenow said getting an agreement by this weekend would be “very daunting and very difficult,” but he did say it was possible.
Bettman said the union asked him to stay in Toronto and said the sides would meet Thursday.
On Wednesday, the NHL presented what it termed a “compromise.” But the union rejected it, Goodenow calling it “transparent.”
The NHL offered to accept the union’s proposal of Dec. 9, which would institute a luxury-tax system, and to play under those conditions until any one of four financial or revenue limits is exceeded. That would trigger a switch to the league’s salary-cap system proposed Feb. 2.
The union’s proposal included a luxury tax of 20 cents on the dollar over $45 million in payroll, while the league proposed a salary cap of $42 million.
“All of the proposals have been created to pay players what we can afford to pay them,” Bettman said. “We’re not prepared to pay more than we can afford to pay.
“Our economics got to a point where this had to be fixed. It’s the harsh economic reality of where we find ourselves.”
