NHL May Pull the Plug Soon

Bill Daly, chief legal officer for the NHL, said Monday that time was rapidly running out, and the league may be within days of acknowledging cancellation of the season.

Daly said he had exchanged e-mails with Ted Saskin, senior director of the National Hockey League Players’ Assn., over the weekend to keep lines of communication open. A league source said the two sides would meet Thursday.

Asked how much longer the sides had to salvage the season, Daly said, “not much longer.”

“If we get to the point where it’s clear that there is no reasonable chance that games can be played this season, my guess is that there will be an appropriate announcement made by the league,” Daly said.

Union executives did not respond to e-mail inquiries.

There have been no negotiations since Thursday, when Saskin said there were still “significant philosophical differences” on what kind of financial system to implement to reverse what league executives claim have been devastating losses during the last two seasons.

NHL executives are seeking to link player salaries to league revenues and have discussed giving the players 54% of revenues, although a league source said they would go as high as 58%. The players’ union calls that a salary cap, which it opposes, and has offered proposals that include a luxury tax, which the league rejects as inadequate to solve its financial problems.

A tentative meeting had been scheduled last Friday, but the sides then parted ways on Thursday, saying only that they would meet again. It is believed that a new collective bargaining agreement must be in place within the next week for the league to play enough games for a meaningful season.

Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh’s owner/player, said Friday that the chances that the season would be saved were “50-50.” Detroit Red Wing veteran Steve Yzerman was among a number of players who were less than optimistic.

“I don’t see it happening,” Yzerman told the Detroit News. “The philosophies haven’t changed, and there’s no compromise in sight. I’d hoped at the last moment the owners would move off the salary cap, but they’re not going to. I don’t see a deal being done in the next week, and that’s pretty much all the time that’s left.”