NHL to Spurn Union Plan, Make Counteroffer

The NHL today will reject a labor proposal made last week by the players’ union, leaving two key questions to be answered when league and union representatives reconvene here at the NHL’s office.

After concluding that a surprisingly big 24% salary rollback and other concessions wouldn’t produce sustained financial relief, will Commissioner Gary Bettman counter with a stronger restraint on spending -- a salary cap? And if he proposes a cap, will union negotiators walk out, hoping public sympathy for players’ sacrifices will pressure owners into overruling Bettman and ending a lockout that on Wednesday will conclude its third month?

In a memo obtained Monday by Canada’s TSN network, Bill Daly, the NHL’s chief legal officer, told the 30 clubs that although salaries might initially dip under the union’s plan, nothing in the proposal is preventing payrolls from rising “such that the league’s overall financial losses would approach current levels in only a matter of a couple of years.”

The NHL says its clubs lost nearly $500 million the last two seasons. The union said its plan would result in about $1 billion in savings over six years. It has vowed to reject a salary cap in a new labor deal.

Daly said the proposal Bettman would offer today “will ensure the league’s future stability and long-term health.”

Including a cap, however, whether in name or in essence, could result in the pain of a lost season. Through Monday, 407 games and the All-Star game had been wiped out.

“I can’t see how it would provide any basis for going forward,” Ted Saskin, senior director of the NHL Players’ Assn., said of a cap-based plan.

Saskin wouldn’t comment on Daly’s memo.

Daly said, via e-mail: “We have spent a significant amount of time since Thursday reviewing and evaluating in detail the union’s proposal, and we intend to provide them with our impressions [today].”

Bettman said last week that he didn’t believe in a luxury tax, a central element of the NHLPA plan; and owners, among them the Ottawa Senators’ Eugene Melnyk, said the union proposal would be only a temporary salve.

“The most important thing is to fix the system,” Melnyk told the Ottawa Sun. “What we don’t want to do is end up back in the same situation three, four or five years from now.

“There is one solution, and that’s what is being proposed by Commissioner Bettman. If we follow that track, we will have hockey that is here to stay.”

Saskin said he was puzzled by Melnyk’s reaction because the Senators would consistently benefit from the union plan.

“When coupled with other important system changes, I fail to see how Ottawa would not be able to manage their player budget in a way that doesn’t provide them significantly lower player costs for the foreseeable future,” he said.

“I’m not sure those people have taken the time to review the proposals and how it would affect their team.”