Bettman: NHL will not play under current CBA
The NHL and NHL Players Association met for less than two hours in New York on Thursday, and commisioner Gary Bettman emerged from the talks saying the league has "no intention" of playing the 2012-13 season under the current collective bargaining agreement.
The CBA expires Sept. 15. The start of the regular season is scheduled for Oct. 11.
"The owners are not prepared to operate under this collective bargaining agreement for another season," said Bettman, according to the Sports Business Daily. "This isn't news. The union has been told this repeatedly for the last 9-12 months."
The league owners are expected to lock the players out from training camp barring a new agreement.
"It didn't look to us like the way to go," NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr said of the owners' current proposal. "It seems to us that, overall and on a club-by-club basis, all of the revenue-sharing payments -- both the new ones and the existing ones -- would be paid for by player salary reductions."
Fehr expects to make a counter-proposal to the owners Tuesday.
