NHL Players Offer to Play Under a Salary Cap

Commissioner Gary Bettman is supposed to cancel the NHL season on Wednesday. But frantic last-minute talks have brought new concessions in an attempt to end the lockout.

On Monday, both sides moved off their sacred principles. A statement from the NHL Players' Association confirms that the players are ready to accept a salary cap under the right circumstances.

"The League abandoned its demand for 'linkage' for the first time by agreeing that the League would no longer insist that League-wide compensation be limited to a percentage of declared League-wide revenues. However, the League continued to demand a team payroll cap of $40 million."

"In response, the Players made a counter-proposal that featured an unprecedented move of their own. Specifically, for the first time ever, the Players included an upper limit on team payrolls. The Players’ payroll limit was set at $52 million. The Players’ counter-proposal also featured more aggressive tax thresholds and tax rates on team payrolls."

That proposal was rejected, but talks reportedly continue today.

Even with such previously unthinkable compromises on the table, the opportunity to salvaging a rump of a 2004-05 schedule has nearly slipped away. In fact, there are plenty of reasons to write off the season and start fresh next fall.

A more pressing question: Where was this spirit of compromise five or six months ago? If the above news release had been issued in October instead of February, the NHL would surely have been back on the ice by Christmas.

These guys could write a book on how to screw up collective bargaining.

Update: Keith Primeau, captain of the Philadelphia Flyers, reflects the urgency driving the new flexibility in this endless and tiresome drama:

"I'm extremely concerned," Primeau told The Canadian Press. "The biggest thing that disturbs me is everyone's true misunderstanding of the fan base. You hear how certain people believe that the hard-core fan will definitely return, that the damage isn't irreparable. I think that's a huge miscalculation or judgment in error of who and what your fan base is. That, I think, is going to alarm a lot of people when the doors are re-opened."

Somebody should have invited him to join the talks a long time ago.

Update (2): Or they should have invited Primeau's team mate. An Ottawa Sun article suggests Jeremy Roenick may be behind the players' compromise:

"I was involved with a group of NHL players who were trying to get as many (players) as possible to come on board with a resolution that works for both sides. The proposal was to have a number that (is) not tied to revenues," said JR. "We're a strong union, but we are frustrated with the lack of communication, the lack dialogue and negotiation by the NHL. It feels like we've given and given and the owners keep coming back each time asking for more. The proposal was (the players) would accept a salary cap at a much higher level if it were not linked to revenues. Would that be viable to our union?"