NHL LABOR CHRONOLOGY

2003

* Jan. 6 -- Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHL Players’ Assn., and Commissioner Gary Bettman hold first collective bargaining talks.

* March 26 -- Eight consecutive meetings are secretly held between top lieutenants and lawyers from both sides. Other sessions take place in Toronto and Philadelphia in April, and Ottawa and New York in May.

* June 4 -- The biggest gathering yet, again kept secret, with Goodenow and Bettman joining in.

* Oct. 1 -- First meeting made public, includes players and owners. Union offers first proposal, which includes a 5% salary rollback. League counters by saying under any new system, team payrolls cannot exceed $31 million, the NHL’s first official salary-cap threat.

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2004

* Jan. 14 -- First talks in more than three months include Goodenow; Bettman; Ted Saskin, NHLPA senior director; Bill Daly, NHL executive vice president and chief legal officer; John McCambridge, union outside counsel; Bob Batterman, league outside counsel; Ian Pulver, NHLPA associate counsel; and David Zimmerman, NHL vice president and general counsel.

* Feb. 12 -- League hired gun Arthur Levitt releases his financial report, which says the NHL is on a “treadmill to obscurity” if player costs aren’t reduced. The report says only 11 of 30 teams were profitable in 2002-03. The union calls the report “flawed.”

* April 29-Sept. 9 -- Several meetings yield proposals but no agreements.

* Sept. 15 -- Bettman announces lockout.

* Oct. 13 -- First day of the NHL’s regular season missed.

* Dec. 9 -- Both sides arrive at talks with full complement of negotiating teams. Union surprises with offer highlighted by 24% salary rollback on existing player contracts. Other givebacks in entry-level system, qualifying offers, salary arbitration and slightly better payroll tax, but no salary cap.

* Dec. 14 -- Negotiating teams meet again. The NHL rejects the union’s proposal and offers its own counter-proposal, which the union rejects. The league’s offer includes a salary cap, the scrapping of salary arbitration and the restructuring of the players’ 24% salary rollback.

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2005

* Jan. 17 -- Trevor Linden, players’ executive committee president, invites both sides back to the negotiating table, but with a small group that does not include Bettman or Goodenow.

* Jan. 19-27 -- Small-group meetings held, some in secret, all with very little progress.

* Feb. 2-4 -- Marathon round of meetings. League offers a 15-point proposal, once again featuring salary cap, and NHLPA rejects it.

* Feb. 9 -- NHL surprises the union, Bettman calling Goodenow and asking whether they can meet. League offers “compromise” deal that union quickly rejects. Bettman finally announces there won’t be hockey unless a deal is put on paper by weekend.

* Feb. 10 -- NHL, NHLPA part ways, after bleak assessment of latest failed talks.

* Feb. 14 -- The NHL schedules a news conference for Feb. 16 during which it plans to cancel the season. Then, what looks like a breakthrough: The league drops its demand for a link between league revenues and player costs, and the union agrees to accept a salary cap during talks in Niagara Falls, Canada.

* Feb. 15 -- The sides trade a flurry of proposals and letters, but can’t agree on a cap. The owners bump up their offer of a $40-million cap to $42.5 million; the players’ counterproposal is for $49 million, which the league rejects.

* Feb. 16 -- Bettman holds news conference and cancels season.

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