A New Deal Could Be In The Works

The NHL and the NHLPA wrapped up their third meeting in the last week with the intention to head back to New York to continue discussions either tomorrow or Friday. Over the last week many rumors have been spread about the leagues activities, some saying no progress has been made and others saying that a new deal is imminent. It has been generally agreed upon that if these rounds of discussions fail to yield a deal, any chance of salvaging a 2005 NHL campaign will have passed on by.

There are numerous people who believe that chance has already passed by long ago but I’m not ready to start professing gloom and doom quite yet. In fact, I would not be surprised if a new Collective Bargaining Agreement is signed within the next week. Here’s why:

By the end of the week, the NHL and the NHLPA will have met four times in the last eight or nine days. If there was no progress being made last week and especially if it became clear today that none was being made, the two sides would not have scheduled any further discussions. Likely, it would have been announced that the 2004 – 2005 campaign had been cancelled and that talks would continue in the summer in order to hopefully reach a deal to start next season on time.

League commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA head Bob Goodenow have not participated in the recent talks. This could only mean good news as it was very unlikely to make progress because of the egotistic rigmarole that they both bring along with them. With the smaller more informal group that has been assembled for the recent meetings, new ideas and suggestions are actually listened to and discussed instead of being immediately shot down by the league if they do not include a salary cap or by the players association if they do, in fact, include a cap.

Last week, it was reported that the Phoenix Coyotes and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks told their players to be ready to report in a matter of days and to expect a deal to be done in the very immediate future. It was also rumored that the two teams had ordered new hockey equipment. Both teams responded by denying these rumors outright. The Coyotes turned aside the equipment rumor by saying it was an order was for their AHL affiliate. Of course these rumors are going to be denied as it would certainly hinder the process if they were not. It would cause a media circus; subsequently, making it very difficult to find any privacy to continue meaningful discussions. The thing is though; these kinds of things are not just made up out of nowhere. It was reported on by several reputable sources and to include two teams, there has to be some ounce of truth to it. I say where there is smoke; there is most likely a fire.

Trevor Linden and several other players came out on Friday professing doom and gloom while suggesting the season is all but over. This was likely a posturing move to attempt to get the NHL to soften their stance on a number of the issues in question.

Finally, over the course of this week, any information regarding discussions between the league and the players association has become extremely secretive. It came to the point for Wednesday’s meeting in Toronto where signs were put up at a decoy location in order to throw the media off as to the actual whereabouts of the meeting location. When the most news on the progress of the talks is being reported, rest assured the least amount of progress is being made. This time; however, it seems as though the league and the players association have realized the importance of saving a portion of this season and have decided to get down to work and not give any comments until a new deal has been reached. In most labour disputes, the most progress is made while meeting in secret.

It seems as though the two sides are finally agreeing that something has to be done, and soon! It is becoming very clear that fans are losing patience with the NHL. Should a deal not be struck to save a portion of this season, it could be quite likely that there will be little to come back to in the future. It is a shame it took four and a half months to put aside all of the rhetoric and public relations ploys in order to finally get into some serious talks. Let’s all hope it will be in time do what we all know has to be done.