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[Retired] Official Lockout Thread

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That is nothing but good news. To me, that sounds like they're backing off their asinine requirements on ELC's and prevention of salary arbitration.

Fehr has called a conference call with the NHLPA's Negotiating Committee and the Executive Committee for 5PM ET.

Hopefully.

It depends on what they're doing to HRR at the same time but this sounds like a very realistic offer from the NHL. Finally.

Details are sketchy but Dreger and McKenzie are making it sound like the players full contracts will be honored, it's just going to be paid out over longer time. Without that sort of protection by McKenzie's figuring the NHLPA is going to have to swallow an 11% decrease in salary.

And as you mention, hopefully the NHL has moved off its idiotic contract demands as well.

This sounds very promising.

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This is really exciting but I've learned that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

I think this is a huge step forward in negotiations and I REAAALLY want this to end the lockout but until we get more details I'm not getting my hopes too high. Did the proposal say how HRR will be defined?

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Hopefully.

It depends on what they're doing to HRR at the same time but this sounds like a very realistic offer from the NHL. Finally.

Details are sketchy but Dreger and McKenzie are making it sound like the players full contracts will be honored, it's just going to be paid out over longer time. Without that sort of protection by McKenzie's figuring the NHLPA is going to have to swallow an 11% decrease in salary.

And as you mention, hopefully the NHL has moved off its idiotic contract demands as well.

This sounds very promising.

Let's just hope Fehr and all the players big heads don't balk at this one and think they can get even more out of the owners.

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Let's just hope Fehr and all the players big heads don't balk at this one and think they can get even more out of the owners.

Agreed.

I think this is the first time we'll really get a sense for Fehr's intentions, because it's the first decent offer from the league.

There's a lot of details to be worked out but if there truly is salary protection for players and the NHL backed off it's contract demands, we should be watching hockey very soon.

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Hopefully.

It depends on what they're doing to HRR at the same time but this sounds like a very realistic offer from the NHL. Finally.

Details are sketchy but Dreger and McKenzie are making it sound like the players full contracts will be honored, it's just going to be paid out over longer time. Without that sort of protection by McKenzie's figuring the NHLPA is going to have to swallow an 11% decrease in salary.

And as you mention, hopefully the NHL has moved off its idiotic contract demands as well.

This sounds very promising.

Bettman added that the offer calls for no salary rollback and the revised schedule - if implemented - would see every team play an extra game every five weeks.

NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr said the offer - which is at least six years in length - is an "excellent start" and he would go over it with his membership in a 5pm et conference call.

This is really exciting but I've learned that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

I think this is a huge step forward in negotiations and I REAAALLY want this to end the lockout but until we get more details I'm not getting my hopes too high. Did the proposal say how HRR will be defined?

I have not seen anything about HRR but in the NHL's last proposal they had HRR definitions stay the same, so who knows it is quite possible they did the same here.

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John Shannon of Sportsnet had a few more details. (I got this from Puck Daddy's summary, for the record).

• Entry level contract maximums will go from three years to four years; i.e. every star rookie will be locked into a 4-year contract before their payday.

• The cap on long-term contracts will be five years. No more lifetime, cap-circumventing deals; no more securing your investments for a decade. But hey, at least the free-agent frenzy will be fun again.

• "Revenue sharing would be at or near 200 million dollars." Closer to what the NHLPA desired, and presumably expanded to teams like the Devils and Ducks.

• Free agency would "be at 28 years old and 8 years of NHL service."

IMO, each of these plans are reasonable. MUCH more so than the original proposal from the league, at least...

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I don't see how just one extra game every 5 weeks would be enough to get to 82, if the end date is the same. That amounts to maybe 4-5 extra games, but the Wings for example played (or were supposed to play) 9 games in October.

Cut out the all star weekend and there is 4-5 more days where teams can play 2 to 3 games.

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I'll agree with you there, but only because I think the only way a deal gets done if both sides move towards the middle. I can honestly say I have no idea what would be "fair."

I do agree with you here. I have no idea what would be "fair" other than meeting in the middle somewhere. I also dislike Daly playing the PR card saying that they are waiting on a proposal. I will also say that I dislike Fehr being unwilling to put forward a proposal. IMHO, negotiation is just that. It goes back and forth. The NHL did give the last proposal, and Fehr says that this isn't "ping pong". I beg to differ. This is a negotiation, and it should go back and forth. It seems to me that both sides are doing more of playing the PR card than they are at negotiating a deal. That is the most frustrating thing.

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John Shannon of Sportsnet had a few more details. (I got this from Puck Daddy's summary, for the record).

IMO, each of these plans are reasonable. MUCH more so than the original proposal from the league, at least...

The thing that worries me is that Fehr said this proposal is an "Excellent start" meaning (or at least the way I interpret it) he still wants changes made and probably won't accept it the way it is.

I hope I am wrong though :huh2:

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Agreed.

I think this is the first time we'll really get a sense for Fehr's intentions, because it's the first decent offer from the league.

There's a lot of details to be worked out but if there truly is salary protection for players and the NHL backed off it's contract demands, we should be watching hockey very soon.

I am hoping that Fehr makes a concession at this stage as well. Glad to see the owners finally blink though. If anyone had room to move from their position, it was the owners.

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By the way. Everyone who was up in arms about the Focus Group news yesterday? The reactions of "Sign it" and "Good news" (myself included) are doing exactly what the league wanted.

The PR war does matter. The owners scored a huge victory in that war today.

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omg yes. this is excellent news.

owners made a move. now we find out fehr's true colors

I don't think Fehr will accept this offer as is. What I believe will happen is Fehr will come down from his last offer of 54.5% down to 52% or so as a counter offer. Yes, the league made a good concession, but Fehr will counter.

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I don't think Fehr will accept this offer as is. What I believe will happen is Fehr will come down from his last offer of 54.5% down to 52% or so as a counter offer. Yes, the league made a good concession, but Fehr will counter.

i don't either but the fact the owners moved on the economic issues makes me positive that we will have hockey by the time the winter classic comes around.

i doubt the season starts november 2nd though.

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McKenzie's twitter:

My take: Too early to say how NHLPA will react to NHL offer but I suspect we're in for 7 to 10 days of really intense bargaining sessions.

It seems like the broad strokes are there. Now they can hopefully start pulling some marathon negotiating sessions over the next several days to get this done.

Honestly if I were the players I'd think about wanting an 78-80 game season instead of trying to cram in the full 82. The season is too long as it is. I can't see the owners giving that up though.

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here's another little detail that was included in the owners new offer

"Players' Salaries for those NHLers playing in the AHL would be part of the cap." Now, are they formally calling this the Wade Redden Rule or not ...

no more for teams using the AHL to cover up their mistakes

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here's another little detail that was included in the owners new offer

"Players' Salaries for those NHLers playing in the AHL would be part of the cap." Now, are they formally calling this the Wade Redden Rule or not ...

no more for teams using the AHL to cover up their mistakes

Good. Now they should look at doing the same thing with overseas loans, too. Imagine Chicago being unable to bury Huet in Switzerland in '10-11... No way they would have made the playoffs if they still had to count his salary towards the cap.

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Oh GOD I'm trying so hard not to get my hopes up, but I will freely admit to getting butterflies in my belly when I saw all those tweets flying around. GREAT move in the right direction, don't think this will be the end of negotiations but it's a huge step forward.

Maybe the focus groups opened the league's eyes to how much they were despised by the majority of the fans and made them realize they needed to be the ones to initiate the concessions.

Oh PLEASE let something good happen, I was SO not looking forward to using my WC tix as toilet paper...

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