NHL Lockout Watch Begins, Clock Runs Out September 15th

Labor negotiations have been heating up of late, however, Gary Bettman echoed the owners’ sentiment that they will not play another season under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement. Since the current CBA ends on September 15th, this means there will be another NHL lockout if the owner’s and player’s cannot reach an agreement on a new CBA.

Back in late June, NHLPA Director Donald Fehr had this to say on the September 15th deadline:

"“There’s nothing magic about Sept. 15. The law is that if you don’t have a new agreement, and as long as both sides are willing to keep negotiating, you can continue to play under the terms of the old one until you reach an agreement. All I know is that in baseball, there were any number of occasions in which we played while the parties were continuing to negotiate.”"

Well, we now know that will not be the case. Now Fehr had this to say about the owners’ decision to refuse to play under the current CBA:

"“September 15th is not a magic date unless someone wants to make it so.”"

The two sides continue to discuss options on a new revenue sharing system, which seems to be the most important part of the negotiations. Simply put, the players want a bigger piece of the pie and the owner’s are a bit reluctant to give up such a big piece.

Also in CBA talks, Katie Strang of ESPN tweeted that the NHLPA made a presentation responding to the league’s proposed revenue sharing system.