In NHL Labor Talks, Silence Is Not Golden

No talks have taken place between the NHL and its players’ union in the three weeks since their labor agreement expired and the league imposed a lockout and no negotiations are planned, the chief negotiators on each side said Wednesday.

Bill Daly, the NHL’s chief counsel, said during an interview at his Manhattan office that based on the union’s last proposal on Sept. 9, “they’re not serious about the process at this point, and until they get serious about the process, there’s really not a whole lot to talk about.” He said teams can release dates in their arenas 30 days in advance, erasing games at least through early November. The season had been scheduled to start Oct. 13.

“Every day is another day lost,” Daly said. “You don’t go into a situation like this blind. You understand that there are going to be negative consequences to a lockout and you have to make a judgment as to whether you’re making the right decision for the sport for the long term. This league and our owners made the judgment that we had no alternative and we would need to do what we’re doing. We’re going to suffer some consequences, business-related consequences as a result of that, but we have no alternative.”

The next time Daly speaks with Ted Saskin, senior director of the NHL Players’ Assn., may be Tuesday, when they are scheduled to debate on Canada’s TSN network.

Saskin said in a telephone interview that his side “isn’t going to stand on ceremony” and outright refuse to initiate talks. However, he said there’s no inclination to make a call now.

“We made the last proposal to them on Sept. 9 and we made it clear we’re prepared to talk about a number or elements for a framework of a deal,” he said. “They shot it down and started the lockout.

“We’re waiting to see what they come up with.... As soon as we get them off a cap, we can talk.”

The NHLPA’s proposal included rollbacks on entry-level compensation, a 5% cut of players’ salaries and a luxury tax designed to discourage extravagant spending and help small-market clubs compete. The NHL, which is seeking to establish “cost certainty” -- a term players interpret as a salary cap -- rejected the union’s proposal as insufficient to stem losses it claims totaled $497 million the last two seasons.

Daly said that although the lockout has removed the NHL from the landscape in many U.S. cities, it’s not a case of killing the league in order to save it in another form.

“I hope we’re not killing it and I don’t think we’re killing it,” he said. “We have to go away and we have to sit down with our players’ association and fix it, and that’s what we’re doing now.”

Daly also said he and Commissioner Gary Bettman plan to visit NHL cities to discuss the labor impasse with fans, season ticket holders and reporters. They plan to visit Los Angeles and Anaheim but the dates are not set.