NHL talks progressing slowly; replacement players vetoed

That grinding you hear is NHL contract negotiations moving slowly down the track with the brakes fully on.

The twists and turns of these negotiations have included each side negotiating matters they said were absolutely not negotiable. On Wednesday came the latest never-going-to-happen happening: Commissioner Gary Bettman said no replacement players.

“If we’re not going to have a collective bargaining agreement in time to start the season on time with our players, then we’re not starting on time,” said Bettman.

This was about a month after he announced the league would start on time one way or the other – absolutely.

If you step back and view these negotiations you will see the players association in the middle of a circle around which revolves the NHL owners. The league announces this and that, the players move to face the new direction from which the owners speak and respond.

Each time, the players reject the owners’ proposal, wait for the owners’ rejection of the players’ offer, and move to face another angle of the circle.

The league desperately wants to use replacement players. An informal survey of players by team GMs did not come up with the expected number of “I’ll cross the line” responses.

League attorneys are searching for a legal way to open the doors in the fall without having to go to the labor boards and courts to get an impasse order, fearful they might not get one.

The lawyers have apparently not found that magic passageway to a season.

By announcing no replacement players, Bettman has attempted to further the argument, if needed in court, that the league tried everything to reach an agreement. The use of replacement players, however, is not off the league’s menu of options.

Added pressure has come to the league if reports are true that advertisers are telling the NHL they are running out of time to have dollars budgeted for NHL sponsorships.

Since businesses budget for the fall in the spring, there is every reason to believe that pressure is real.

The players’ last proposal that included team salary caps of $32 to $52 million is acceptable to many NHL teams. Some teams would be willing to spend more.

The players want those caps to be flexible depending on revenues produced by the teams. Smaller markets are fearful of the baseball affect where a couple of teams like the Yankees and Red Sox leave everyone else in the dust.

Teams that make money and win want to leave other teams in the dust.

Players may have gotten these negotiations back to where the problem all started – out-of-control team spending. Now the teams will have to decide how willing they are to let some teams outspend others and what the long-range impact of doing so looks like.

While the grinding continues, it is better than silence.

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