Hockey agreement imminent?

With time truly their enemy, the NHL and its players’ association have reached their 11th hour in negotiations for a new CBA. If the two sides cannot come to an agreement before Christmas, it’s a safe bet the league will shut its doors until October 2013, at the earliest.

After last week's soap opera like negotiations in which commissioner Gary Bettman flatly rejected Donald Fehr’s attempt at a counter-proposal to the owners’ “yes or no” offer, the two sides will meet today in a last ditch effort to salvage the season. 

At the core of the negotiations, the players and owners need to settle three key sticking points: the length of the new CBA, the maximum length of player contracts, and how the NHL’s “make whole” provision is distributed.

The owners are seeking a 10-year term on the new CBA, while the players want eight years with an opt-out after six. Daly said last week that the five-year maximum on player contracts is a hill the owners will die on, and that seems like a foolish stand for the players to take. How the NHL distributes to players its proposed $300 million in “make whole” provisions is the third sticking point that could slow negotiations, but not end them.

My own thoughts on the negotiations are that the owners have made enough concessions that the players need to accept at this point.  Frankly, I think many players are okay with the latest deal but Donald Fehr is trying to push the envelope too far.  My guess is that Fehr thought the owners were bluffing in their latest take it or leave it deal and when the owners rejected Fehr's counter offer and pulled their entire proposal off the table and the players realized how ticked off Bettman and the owners were, they scrambled to try and re-engage the owners and get more negotiations under way this week.  I expect a deal to be struck within the week and hockey to be played by the start of the New Year.