Senators' Billionaire Owner Says NHL Players' Offer "Doesn't Work"

The owner of the Ottawa Senators says there is only one way to end the NHL labor dispute.

"There is one solution and that's what is being proposed by commissioner Bettman," Eugene Melnyk tells the Ottawa Sun. "If we follow that track, we will have hockey that is here to stay."

As for the proposal made last Thursday by the NHL Players' Association: "It's a one-shot deal that doesn't work."

The article mentions that Melnyk "bought the Senators out of bankruptcy" without adding that players' salaries had nothing to do with the team's financial troubles. The franchise was under-capitalized from the start and saddled with an enormous debt load, from which earlier owners never recovered.

It's obvious that Melnyk's solution is a salary cap. If his comments reflect the views of other team owners, we can expect the same old tune when the NHL makes its counter-proposal to the players on Tuesday: Here's a salary cap, take it or leave it.

If Bettman and his negotiating team do not budge from that stance, there will be no NHL season. Consider the comments by Flames' star Jarome Iginla in yesterday's Calgary Sun:

"If they get rid of their push for cost certainty, we have to look at (what's in the counter-offer). If it's a hard-cap proposal or another one of their dictatorship proposals like the one of the league doing everybody's contract, it's not going to fly. There's no doubt about that."

"We can't hold the owners hands. We've showed them all these ways they don't have to spend more money. Are we supposed to also say no for them? There has to be some responsibility in their hands and we've given them a new marketplace to work within."