(TSN.ca with files from New York Newsday, Dallas Morning News, The Hockey News and Los Angeles Times) -
While most fans and hockey pundits believed that the NHL lockout news ended Wednesday with commissioner Gary Bettman's cancellation announcement, it seems that most newspapers and hockey publications across the continent still won't let it go.
The rumours continued to swirl Friday as New York Newsday reported that a faction of players and agents are secretly working to put together a proposal for the league involving a $46-million cap with a 100 percent luxury tax that starts at $42 million. It would also have a provision that drops the cap to $42 million should more than eight teams hit the $46-million cap in the same season.
"This is not being done with the union," a source told the paper.
The News added there was no indication in whether the group would go to the league or NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow with the offer first. But if it did go to Goodenow first, it could a surprise to players like Mike Modano.
The Stars veteran forward was front and centre in Friday's Dallas Morning News, saying that the players weren't upset with the notion of a cap so much as they were the stance of their own union that possibly cost them five months of negotiations.
"There were a lot of people who really couldn't understand how we could go so long not talking about a cap and then just change over to a cap like that," he told the News. "And a lot of people didn't like it."
When asked if Goodenow had the support of the union, Modano replied, "I don't know, I don't know. I'm not sure."
It all began Thursday with a report in The Hockey News website saying that Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux were trying to spearhead emergency talks to try and "un-cancel" the season, perhaps reaching out to players.
Not true, says the Great One.
"I did talk to Mario today," Gretzky told the Fan 590 all-sports radio station in Toronto. "I had a brief conversation about pretty much what everyone else is talking about, can we believe we're in the situation we're in. Nobody understands why we're in this situation. Nobody has the answer to how we got here or how we're going to get out of here."
The Los Angeles Times also ran with the story, and added that Trevor Linden, president of the NHL Players' Association and Mike Gartner, the NHLPA's director of business relations, met with Bettman in New York Thursday.
The Times also reported that it could result in players pressuring union chief Bob Goodenow to propose a deal that would include a salary cap set between $45 million and $46 million, and a prohibitive luxury tax. The union's last offer, made Tuesday, set the cap at $49 million, while the NHL's final offer was for a $42.5 million cap that wasn't linked to league-wide revenues.
The (for lack of a better term) trigger behind all these reports stemmed from what Bettman said during his news conference Wednesday. He said if the union had brought a $44-million cap offer, the league would "have had to look at that very, very seriously." The commissioner also said, "If they wanted 45, they should have told us."
NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly added Thursday he and Bettman had spoken to many owners and players leading up to the cancellation but they have not heard anything from the NHL Players' Association.
"I'd be happy to take that call and happy to have that problem," he said. "But so far, we don't."
NHLPA senoir director Ted Saskin said Thursday that players have not pushed the union to make a season-saving deal.
"There are no back-channel talks," Saskin told the Times. "What we're hearing are rumors about various owners and general managers who are looking for some kind of continuation of the negotiations because they are not satisfied with the way Gary ended the negotiations.
"Since that time, Gary said they would be willing to look at a higher number. We wish he would have said that in the negotiating process."