NHL Lockout: Negotiations At A Crawl

• 9 months ago
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NHL Lockout 2012: Players Need To Compromise, According To Deputy Commissioner

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly believes that the players need to compromise for a labor deal to be completed. In a conference call reported on by Damian Cristodero of The Tampa Bay Times, Daly says that to get things going on the new labor deal, the players association has to do something:

"It will take some sense of compromise on the players association side to get things going."

As for whether the league would be willing to compromise:

"I'm sure it will. I guess what I'm trying to say is we have made compromise(s) already. We continually try to signal to them that we are in a negotiation, and so far they haven't negotiated with us."

Right now, the players appear to be winning the public relations battle in this lockout. However, Daly continues to say that the reason there have been no formal talks since Sept. 12 is because of the lack of cooperation from the players:

"What we've had a lack of is any degree of compromise or movement from the players association. They've really made one proposal, and they haven't moved off the one proposal.

For more on the NHL lockout and how it affects the Panthers, check out Litter Box Cats. For how it affects the Lightning, check out Raw Charge. For more NHL news and information, check out SB Nation's hockey hub.

• 9 months ago
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NHL Lockout 2012: Florida Panthers Cancel 3 Preseason Games

The NHL announced on Wednesday that all preseason games through September 30th have been cancelled. For the Florida Panthers, that means their home game against the Nashville Predators has been cancelled, as well as two games against the Dallas Stars in Dallas.

The Panthers three remaining preseason games are all against the Tampa Bay Lightning. On Tuesday, Oct. 2nd, the two will meet in Estero, FL. The Lightning will host the Panthers on Thursday, Oct. 4th, before the preseason closes out on Saturday, Oct. 6th in Sunrise. Those three games are still tentatively scheduled, but will not be played unless the NHL and NHL Players Association can come to an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement. As of now, it is unlikely that an agreement will be made soon enough for these games to be played.

For more on the NHL lockout and how it affects the Panthers, check out Litter Box Cats, as well as SB Nation's hockey hub.

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NHL Lockout Costs Lightning Another Marketing Chance

With community outreach at an all-time high, the current state of the Tampa Bay Lightning's marketability is still in the hands of the NHL lockout. Tampa isn't the most traditional hockey town, and overall, it isn't considered one of the greater sports cities in America.

That's why if the Lightning are going to get the local community behind this team and keep it that way, they have to at least be out there playing. This is the second time in eight years that a labor dispute has caused work stoppage, which is never a good thing for a town like Tampa trying to make it.

The Tampa Bay Times had this quote from David Carter, a professor of sports business at the University of Southern California and executive director of the school's Sports Business Institute.

"It's important to cultivate that fan base because it's a scenario where you eat what you kill in the National Hockey League on a local level," Carter said. "In a sport like hockey that among the four major sports leagues shares the least amount of revenue, it's beholden on the local franchise to connect with fans and corporate sponsors."

For more on the NHL Lockout and how it relates to the Tampa Bay Lightning, check out Raw Charge and Hockey Hub..

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Lightning Offseason 2012: NHL Lockout Wipes Out Preseason Games Through Sept. 30

The National Hockey League cancelled all preseason games through Sep. 30 on Wednesday as a result of the current lockout. This is the first set of games affected by the labor dispute between players and owners. All games after Sep. 30 remain on the schedule for now. In addition, the Kraft-Hockeyville game scheduled for Oct. 3 in Belleville, Ontario has been postponed.

The lockout is currently in its fourth day after players and owners failed to reach a collective bargaining agreement by Sep. 15. A number of prominent players, including Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals and Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins, have signed deals to play in other countries while the lockout continues. Ovechkin, who has signed to play with the KHL's Dynamo Moscow, told the Washington Post today that he would consider staying in Russia if the new collective bargaining agreement significantly slashed player salaries.

"As to the future, it will depend on what kind of conditions there will be in the NHL with the new CBA," Ovechkin said. "If our contracts get slashed, I will have to think whether to return there or not. I won't rule out staying in the KHL, even past this season."

For more on the NHL Lockout and how it relates to the Tampa Bay Lightning, check out Raw Charge and Hockey Hub..

• 10 months ago
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NHL CBA Talks Cancelled Wednesday

Formal meetings between the NHLPA and commissioner Gary Bettman were cancelled on Wednesday. Bettman, along with deputy NHL commissioner Bill Daly, spoke informally with NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr and his brother, NHLPA advisor Steve Fehr in an attempt to "chart a way forward in talks."

The Fehrs requested to delay further discussions to Thursday. The two sides of the CBA disagreement are discussing how to divide up the hockey-related revenue. Revenue sharing and rules regarding player contracts are also key issues in these negotiations.

The two sides appear to be miles apart at this stage of the negotiations and the players have already said that they will not play if a new CBA is not in place. In addition, Bettman has already announced that the owners will lock out the players if a deal is not reached by September 15. The regular season is tentatively scheduled to begin on October 11.

For all the news surrounding the NHL's collective bargaining agreement and the ongoing quest to replace it, stick with this StoryStream.