TORONTO (CP) - The NHL season isn't dead yet, but it is on its last legs.

The cautious optimism accompanied by last week's offer by the NHL Players' Association was replaced by doom and gloom Tuesday as both sides of the NHL labour battle officially rejected each other's proposals.

And they made crystal clear what has long been outlined as the main hurdles in their dispute. The NHL wants "cost certainty" in the form of a salary cap. The NHLPA refuses to adhere to an "idiot-proof" system that acts as an economic safety net for owners.


Related Info
Excerpts from Bettman's speech
Excerpts from Goodenow's speech
What they said: Conference Quotes
McKenzie: I've got a news flash for both sides
The philosophical gap widens
Prime Minister offers intervention
Proposals Rejected
1-on-1 with Goodenow
Making sense of it all
More from the panel
The NHLPA's Proposal
The NHL's Counter Proposal

Both sides have painted themselves into a corner, leaving little room for compromise. The union says it will never accept a salary cap, the league says it will never sign off on any of the union's luxury-tax proposals.

"We have no interest in a luxury tax at any level at any threshhold," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said dismissively during his news conference Tuesday.

Countered a scornful NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow: "He (Bettman) remains fixated on the salary cap solution. And as long as that's the case, there's going to be problems."

Both news conferences differed in style and atmosphere. Bettman sounded calm and composed, as if it was just another day at the office. Goodenow appeared to have steam coming out of his ears, an anger perhaps triggered earlier in the day when the league shredded the union's offer behind closed doors.

The league may hope to wait out the players before finally getting its cap. But the players have resolve - and 24 months' worth of limited lockout pay to fight it.

"Hockey players have always stuck together, they know what it's like to be on a team, they know how important that is," Vancouver Canucks veteran Trevor Linden, the NHLPA's membership president, said after the union's news conference. "I spoke to over 50 players over the weekend. We're extremely strong, we stick together, and I'm extremely confident that that will continue to be the case."

So what now?

The season is not totally lost yet. There were breaks in talks 10 years ago as well during the last lockout before the deal was finally reached in mid-January. The same can still happen this time around.

"I think it's a lot different this time around. I'm less optimistic this year," said Dallas Stars winger Bill Guerin, a member of the NHLPA's bargaining committee.

Someone will need to budge.

The union thought it had done just that when it offered a stunning 24 per cent rollback on all existing player salaries last Thursday. At the very least, many had hoped the union's package was worth a starting point in meaningful negotiations.

Instead, the league came back five days later with a salary cap, halting talks in a hurry.

"In short, the league took what they liked from our proposal, made major changes and slapped a salary cap on top of it," Goodenow said. "Put simply, our proposal provides the basis for a negotiated agreement. The NHL's does not."

The league's offer did contain some elements first introduced by the union last week - but they were all tweaked.

The rollback was "restructured" to penalize the richer players and soothe the lower-paid skaters. Any player making $800,000 US or less would not face a pay cut while any player earning over $5 million would give back 35 per cent of his wages.

This would seem like an attempt by the league to break the union or at the very least reach out to the rank and file, the Pierre Dagenais and Mike Commodore of the world who have already waffled publicly on the salary cap.

The league's deal once again introduced the fixed link of player costs with league revenues - a salary cap. The league bumped the players' percentage from 53 per cent to 54 per cent of league revenues, which based on last year's total revenues of $2.1 billion, works out to a maximum team payroll of $38.6 million. The Toronto Maple Leafs would need to chop more than $20 million from their current contract commitments this season alone.

The league also offers a minimum payroll of $34.6 million, meaning the Nashvilles and Edmontons of the world would need to spend a little more cash to get to that level. It's about bringing the haves and have nots together and improving the competitive balance - although the union is quick to point out that small-payroll teams such as Calgary, Anaheim and Carolina reached the past three Stanley Cup finals under the old agreement.

The league based its salary cap numbers on its own projections for future salary inflation and league revenues.

In assessing the NHL presentation, a dismissive Goodenow called the league numbers "wildly unreliable," "mostly made-up" and "completely useless and phoney."

Other comparables from the league's counter-proposal to the union's offer:

- The league liked the union's idea of bringing the entry-level salary to $850,000 a year, but also wants to completely obliterate all possible bonuses. The league also proposed to add a fourth year;

- The league wants to completely discard salary arbitration, rejected the union's offer which featured the possibility of taking players to arbitration to backtrack their salary;

- The cap would replace the union's payroll tax offer;

- The league proposed to change the age for unrestricted free agency from the current 31 and lower it as a concession to the players.

The league detailed this offer to the union in a one-hour presentation Tuesday starting at 1 p.m. EST at the NHL's Toronto offices. The NHLPA asked for a caucus, which lasted 2 1/2 hours, before returning to reject the deal and end the meeting.

There are no future talks planned at this time to end the NHL lockout, which including Tuesday night has wiped out 414 games. And if anything, the gap seemed to widen after Tuesday's get-together.

In the end, someone needs to move. Asked why he thinks the NHLPA might change its position that it won't accept a salary cap or something that links costs and revenue, Bettman said: "Well, work stoppages are historically about changing expectations.

"We've got a problem and we've got to fix it. And at some point the players and the union are going to have to decide that they're going to be part of the solution. That's what it's going to take to get us playing."

In Ottawa, Prime Minister Paul Martin offered federal intervention in NHL labour talks if it would help end the lockout - and if the two sides wanted it.

But one of the few things both the league and the NHL Players' Association have agreed on is that they don't need an outside mediator to get involved, arguing they know their issues best.

The players' association insists that the current marketplace system works - and that it is not up to the players to make up for the owners' mistakes.

"We believe that the old system with good management and good understanding can work well, and we have in fact seen that evidenced by a number of teams," Goodenow said. "There's no question at all about that."

There seemed little suspense going into the meeting after a league memo, obtained by TSN, surfaced Monday with the news that the league had rejected the union's recent offer.

Bettman later told reporters that the league had no part in leaking the memo.

"Actually if I found out who leaked the document, there won't be much reason for you to be talking to that person because their career in the NHL will come to an abrupt end rather quickly," Bettman said.

Associated Press
Posted: 8 hours ago

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) - Wayne Gretzky fears the NHL could be shut down for as long as two years if a labor deal is not reached soon.


Gretzky, the NHL's all-time leading scorer and part owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, said an "even more alarming" scenario could await the league if the lockout is not settled in the next few days.


"I'm scared we could be looking at a year, year-and-a-half, two years, not just three months like a lot of people thought back in September," Gretzky said at a news conference Sunday at the World Junior Championships, where Canada will meet Russia in Tuesday's final.

The NHL board of governors is to meet Jan. 14 in New York. The league rejected a union proposal and its own counteroffer was turned down during a session Dec. 14. No new talks are scheduled.

"From the standpoint of owners, players and fans, everyone is disappointed there is no hockey," Gretzky said.

Since the players are not paid between April and October, Gretzky said there may be little chance of any breakthrough during the summer on a new collective bargaining agreement.

"We're going to be back where we were last Sept. 15th come this Sept. 15th," he said.

Gretzky played in the world juniors for Canada when he was 16. "I was lucky," he said. "The only reason I made the team is because a couple of older guys got hurt. I was a young kid, and I enjoyed it. I was in awe."