NHL Talks Still Going Nowhere After Three Days

Representatives of the NHL Players Assn. and the league ended three days of meetings in Chicago without indicating whether they are closer to an agreement that would salvage the season.

A source said Tuesday that the league’s Board of Governors might hold a conference call today, but it was not known whether the purpose was to poll the governors about a potential deal or merely to update them. Commissioner Gary Bettman has been authorized to cancel the season if he determines a 50-game schedule and full slate of playoffs can not be completed by July 1. Bettman said Jan. 16 is the latest a season could begin.

Union spokesman Steve McAllister said no meeting is scheduled between Bettman and Bob Goodenow, the NHLPA’s executive director.

Brian Burke and Jeff Pash, NHL senior vice presidents, met with union attorneys John McCambridge and Bob Riley for about eight hours Tuesday, after talking for four hours on Sunday and 10 hours Monday. They are expected to meet again today. The union has said it won’t agree to a payroll tax, but the league is insisting salary growth won’t be slowed enough by players’ concessions.

People close to Goodenow described him as pessimistic after Sunday’s meeting. In that session, Pash and Burke broached the idea of eliminating the tax if the union would accept restrictions on free agency and raise the age for eligibility to 32.

The union refused. Burke and Pash said they would have to impose a tax but said they might drop the peak rate below 25%--the top rate in the last proposal--and raise the trigger point of the tax. The previous proposal had a trigger point of $18 million.