Until Tuesday Gentlemen

Three months since the day of the last official meeting, the NHL and the NHLPA met today in Toronto to continue the negotiations of a new collective bargaining agreement. The two sides met for four hours as the NHLPA put forth a proposal that they hope will be enough to end the lockout and save the 2004-2005 campaign. Gary Bettman and the NHL did not accept nor deny the proposal; instead more talks were scheduled for this coming Tuesday when the NHL is expected to give a formal response to this proposal and to provide a counter proposal of their own.

The NHLPA made a significant effort in today’s proposal to save what is left of this season and to restore the financial marketplace in terms of player compensation back to a more workable level. The three most intriguing points in this proposal, at least to Gary Bettman and the owners were a one time 24% rollback in players’ salaries, a luxury tax system and a strengthened control on entry level contracts.

The 24% rollback came as a huge surprise as the NHLPA had only offered a 5% rollback in their last proposal three months ago. This will generate close to $600 million in savings. The amendment to entry level contracts lowers the maximum salary and allows owners to lock rookies up with these deals for four years instead of only three, thus guaranteeing a year of savings depending on the size of contract the player in question would have signed after the old three year entry level deal was finished. The luxury tax system proposed will force teams that exceed a $45 million payroll to pay a 20% tax on every dollar over the $45 million threshold.

One noticeable omission is, of course, the hard salary cap the NHL so desperately covets which makes it difficult to predict whether or not the several significant changes in today’s proposal will make any difference on Tuesday when the NHL will deliver their response and a subsequent counter proposal. Hopefully then, the bargaining will begin.