HOCKEY Union unhappy with NHL offers

The league wants a cap, but did make some concessions.
NEW YORK (AP) -- When the NHL canceled the season, the league warned players that future offers wouldn't be as good as those that were rejected.
There was proof of that Thursday.
During a 21/2-hour bargaining session in New York, the NHL gave the players' association two six-year proposals: one with a tie between league revenues and player costs and one without.
So far, the union isn't interested in either.
"The proposals we saw today were actually worse in content than ones we had previously rejected," players' association senior director Ted Saskin told the AP from Toronto.
A source close to the negotiations told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that the "de-linked" offer contained a hard cap of $37.5 million per team, $5 million less than commissioner Gary Bettman's final, nonnegotiable proposal made on Feb. 15 -- the night before he called off the season.
Back then, the players responded with a soft-cap offer of $49 million. So as far apart as the sides were then, the gap appeared even wider Thursday.
Concessions
The NHL, however, did make some concessions.
The new offer included a minimum payroll number of $22.5 and provided a mechanism to negotiate the cap upward if there was certain revenue success, the source said.
The removal of linkage was what got the players to agree for the first time to accept a salary cap. But a deal was never close to being reached, and a mid-ground number was never offered by either side.
Once the season was wiped out, both sides said all offers were off the table.
But the NHL reinstated a proposal without linkage, and gave it a short shelf life.
"De-linked means we're taking some financial risk and exposure," NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly told the AP.
"As more damage is done and it becomes more unpredictable as to what our revenues will be, our willingness to entertain and accept that exposure and risk becomes less and less."
There is no question that the league would like to have a collective bargaining agreement with linkage to ensure "cost certainty" for its 30 clubs.
That was the basis of the second offer Thursday in which players would be guaranteed 54 percent of league revenues, the source said.
The offers also dealt with issues such as the entry-level system, qualifying offers, salary arbitration, and free agency.
"Last week, Gary asked me how to resume discussions for a new CBA," NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow said.
"I told Gary to bring forward any proposal that he believed would be of interest to the players. Today, Gary gave us two salary-cap proposals. Both proposals were very similar to ones that we previously rejected several times.
"We will be determining our next steps and responding at the appropriate time."