There was some movement overnight in the NHL contract discussions. Some are speculating that there may be a last-minute save of the 2004-05 pro hockey season.
Reportedly, the players union agreed to a salary cap but the teams and union disagreed on how big or small the cap should be. The union wants caps of $52 million per team, the NHL wants it restricted to $40 million per team. Negotiations broke down again shortly afterwards.
Since the union is now talking about salary caps, the NHL has dropped a demand that was labeled by union as “unacceptable” which featured a “revenue to player” link. Sounds pretty complex, but the NHL decided to move forward. The salary cap will probably happen and it will be somewhere between $40 million and $52 million per team.
A whole host of minor issues remains, but while the two sides were not budging on the salary caps, all of those smaller issues were set aside until the big issues were settled.
NHL Commissioner Bettman has rescheduled his news conference to Wednesday. It was originally scheduled for today, in which he would have cancelled the rest of the season, but since the two sides are finally making some headway, that announcement has been postponed by the NHL management.
It remains to be seen if the season can be salvaged.
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