NHL can’t stop talking to players

They’re talking. So long as that continues, there is hope. As the World Cup of Hockey continues through Sept.15, that same deadline applies to the current National Hockey League contract with its players. If a new deal is not reached by then, the belief is the owners will lock out the players and the NHL season will be in jeopardy.

Still, the sides conducted 20 hours of meetings over three days in Montreal this week.

It is the same old sports story. The owners can’t control their spending, so they want the players to do it by agreeing to a salary cap or some measure that provides, as NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says, cost certainty.

The players want an open market. The players are fully aware the percentage of revenues dedicated to salaries is too high. They started the negotiations by offering an across-the-board 5 percent salary reduction. From the owners’ perspective, that’s about 25 percent too little.

The players believe the owners hide income. The owners say they have opened their books. The players say there are other books labeled non-hockey revenue that hide hockey revenue.

Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux are the biggest living names in the game. They are both now owners, even as Lemieux still plays. On Tuesday I asked Gretzky, an owner in Phoenix, why he does not become more involved to find some common ground between the parties.

“You know how complicated this is,” he said. “I do not feel comfortable in understanding all that’s involved. This needs to be left to the parties at the table.”

I do not agree, but he said, “I am not involved in the negotiations, directly or indirectly.”

Does the NHL need to cut out three or four teams?

“Absolutely not,” Gretzky said. “There is enough quality talent to fill the rosters and if the teams are competitive, they will succeed at the gate.”

I asked Lemieux, the Penguins owner, about involvement.

“I don’t know what’s going on at the table,” he said, meaning he was following the discussions, but couldn’t understand why there seems to be no progress. There was no desire to be further involved.

That is too bad.

Gretzky and Lemieux are respected on both sides. They could move parties off square one. They could vouch for numbers and personally present both sides of the issues.

I saw no sign they want to do so.

The NHL needs revenue sharing. The owners will not agree to that among themselves. The disparity between the haves and have-nots is enormous. The Rangers do not want to share with Pittsburgh.

The players know the salaries must come down, either with the dreaded salary cap or a formula that defines monies dedicated to salaries team by team or league-wide.

Time is running out.

There could be an agreement to begin the season under the current contract while continuing to talk. Owners are reluctant to do that because that removes the pressure on the players to bargain that exists if a lockout is eminent.

Seventy percent of the NHL employees have been told they will be laid off if there is no deal. Thousands who work the arenas and every related business are holding their breaths.

Keep talking.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.