Bettman is seeking common ground with the NHLPA in hopes of extending the current CBA past '19-20GETTY IMAGES
There is "reason for optimism as the NHL and NHLPA continue a series of preliminary talks aimed at extending the CBA before either party can exercise its reopener" in September, according to Larry Brooks of the N.Y. POST. Sources said that Commissioner Gary Bettman is "not particularly keen on leaving behind a legacy of orchestrating four consecutive lockouts within 17 years." Bettman is "seeking to find common ground" with the NHLPA and an "early peace accord that would extend" the CBA beyond the '19-20 season. Though it is still early, the "tone and tenor from both the league and the union are in stark contrast to the atmosphere leading into" both the '04 and '12 lockouts. Players also "want to participate" in the '22 Beijing Games, and "so does the league." There may be a "potential for a trade-off" in which the NHLPA would agree to a '20 World Cup of Hockey, in which "most revenue would go to the league." Escrow "does not appear to be anywhere near the driving force" behind the union's platform as "anticipated a year or two ago." Instead, the NHLPA is "pressing for a change in the way Long Term Injury payments are calculated in the cap equation." The NHL is also "advocating a change" to a 19-year-old entry draft (N.Y. POST, 11/18).
UNEVEN STRENGTH: Hockey HOFer Ken Dryden in a special to the N.Y. TIMES wrote the "biggest problem" with the NHL's concussion settlement is that it has "nothing to do with the essential problem." From an ownership perspective, the settlement seeks "predictability in costs and risks." However, it "doesn't if you are a player, past, present or future, with memory problems, depression, anxiety, anger, difficulty in solving even simple problems." A settlement "doesn't mean these brain injuries didn't happen, or won't continue to happen." It means that the courts "aren't the best instrument to resolve these matters." Now, it is about the "power to do what's right," and the "power to do what needs to be done" (N.Y. TIMES, 11/18).
