Report: NHL to Reject Players’ Offer

TSN.ca reports that the National Hockey League will officially reject last week’s NHL Players’ Association proposal for a new collective bargaining agreement. TSN received a copy of a confidential eight-page report sent from the league to the member teams that outlines the league’s response to the offer.

“In sum, we believe the Union’s December 9 CBA proposal, while offering necessary and significant short-term financial relief, falls well short of providing the fundamental systemic changes that are required to ensure that overall League economics remain in synch on a going-forward basis,” said NHL chief negotiator Bill Daly in the memo.

The NHLPA’s offer included a 24% salary rollback on all current player contracts. A tiered luxury tax beginning at $45 million was also a major part of the offer.

Before their official response, league executives had proclaimed the offer to be short-sighted, without the league’s long-term goals in mind.

NHL comissioner Gary Bettman has spent the 89 days of the lockout campaigning for a salary cap, what the league refers to as “cost certainty.”

The league’s official response to the players’ proposal also alleges that “the Union’s offer was more about trying to unify the players and ensure player solidarity with what they would perceive as a very substantial proposal than it was about making a good faith effort to reach agreement us…”

The NHL and the NHLPA will meet in Toronto on Tuesday, when the league will officially deliver their response to the Players’ Association.