NHL Will Resume Talks Next Week

The National Hockey League Players’ Assn. will have a new proposal for the NHL when the sides resume negotiations next week, hoping to end an 11-week-old lockout.

Commissioner Gary Bettman discussed the talks when he met with the league’s 30 general managers in New York on Thursday night but offered no details. The meeting was held to bring the general managers up to date on the state of the negotiations, or lack thereof.

Bob Goodenow, the union’s executive director, sent a letter to Bettman, asking that the league’s negotiating committee be in Toronto next Thursday and Friday for what might be the last chance to salvage the season.

“Almost three months have passed since the players made their last proposal and we have yet to receive a counteroffer from the league,” Goodenow said in a statement. “We have been working hard at other creative solutions and believe our new proposal will provide a basis to end the owners’ lockout.”

The new proposal is believed to include a stricter luxury tax. Ted Saskin, the NHLPA’s senior director, said that the union would not tie player salaries to league revenues

It is unlikely that the new proposal will be accepted. Bettman has said repeatedly a luxury tax would not be a solution. But both sides were hopeful that the discussions could be a starting point.

“We look forward to meeting with the NHL Players’ Assn. next Thursday and Friday,” NHL chief counsel Bill Daly said in a statement. “We are hopeful that the NHLPA’s offer will be a meaningful effort to address the league’s economic problems.”

The union and league both moved with apparent urgency this week, with the increasing possibility that hockey could become the first major sports league to cancel an entire season.

Bettman called for a meeting with general managers, and union leaders began organizing a players’ meeting that is expected within the next two weeks. The union then confirmed Thursday that it was trying to revive negotiations.

Next week’s talks will be the first since Sept. 9. At that time, the league rejected a union plan that included a luxury tax. Bettman announced the lockout six days later.

Bettman has said the owners need “cost certainty,” linking player salaries and league revenues. The union has translated that to mean a salary cap and has rejected it.

The league generated more than $2 billion in revenues last season, but NHL leaders maintain that teams lost $224 million. A recent Forbes magazine report said the league had lost $96 million.