NEW YORK — Negotiations between the NHL and the locked-out players’ association ended after nearly six hours Wednesday. Just as they did a night earlier, the sides agreed to get right back to the bargaining table.
Representatives for the owners and players will resume talks today, marking the third straight day they will meet face-to-face. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and union special counsel Steve Fehr also met alone Saturday when in-person talks restarted for the first time since Oct. 18.
The sides met for a total of about 13 hours over Tuesday and Wednesday at an undisclosed location in New York. Neither the NHL nor the NHLPA made any immediate statements after talks ended Wednesday night.
On the 53rd day of the lockout, the sides discussed revenue sharing between teams and held talks on the “make-whole" provision, which involves the payment of player contracts that are already in effect.
Those hot-button topics are scheduled to be on today’s agenda, too.
There was already common ground before negotiations began Tuesday. The players’ union adhered to the league’s request to keep the meeting location a secret. With no outside distractions, the sides talked from afternoon until night.
Once they broke for the day, neither side gave any hint of what was discussed or if progress was made, but both pointed to the next round of talks.
— The Associated Press
