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NHL makes a new proposal to players

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The NHL and the players’ union shifted slightly in proposals they exchanged Wednesday, but they remain firmly at odds over the percentage of revenue players would share in a new labor deal.

Commissioner Gary Bettman said the league’s latest proposal would be off the table if there’s no deal before the current collective bargaining agreement expires at 8:59 p.m. Pacific time Saturday.

“With every day we’re experiencing and will continue to experience damage to the game and to the business of the game, and what we’re trying to do now is stem that damage,” Bettman told reporters in New York. “So what we would be prepared to do now to make a deal before there’s extensive damage is not the same we’ll be prepared to do if we get to the point where we’ve suffered damage.”

The NHL agreed to retain the current definition of hockey-related revenue and would peg players’ salaries in the first year to 49% of hockey-related revenue, up from its previous starting point of 46%. Bettman said that would give players an additional $250 million to $300 million. Players’ share would end at 47% by the sixth season. “Nobody wants to make a deal more than I do,” he said.

However, players are resisting an immediate drop from the 57% of revenue they earned last season. They are willing to accept a five-year term, a year longer than in their initial proposal, and Donald Fehr, the union’s executive director, said players would take a smaller percentage of hockey-related revenue if revenue continues to grow.

Fehr said the union’s proposal was made “with the same principles we’ve always had in mind, and those are that we didn’t see any reason, given the seven years of record revenue growth and enormous concessions the players made the last time, to have an absolute reduction in player salaries.”

He also said the sides still have “very meaningful differences” on significant issues, including the NHL’s intent to extend entry-level status from three years to five, eliminate salary arbitration and raise the threshold for unrestricted free agency to 10 years.

No new talks were scheduled. Players met Wednesday and were scheduled to reconvene Thursday. The NHL’s governors will gather Thursday. Bettman doesn’t need their voting support to impose a lockout, but they’re expected to publicly back his strategy.

Also on Wednesday, the NHLPA filed an application with the Quebec labor relations board to prevent the NHL from locking out players in that province. In general, employers in Quebec can’t lock out employees who are not members of a certified union, and the NHLPA is not certified by the Quebec labor board. A hearing is scheduled for Friday.

helene.elliott@latimes.com

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