Its a big day in the CBA negotiations between the NHL and the NHLPA as both sides will meet at an undisclosed location in New York City. It will be the first full bargaining session in 19 days since the NHL rejected a trio of NHLPA proposals. It took a midnight marathon session over the weekend -- one that lasted 13 hours according to one NHL player -- to break the ice and get things spinning back in a forward motion.
Its expected that the two sides are going to make progress in the areas of splitting hockey related revenue and the owners making whole on the contracts theyve signed to NHL players. A number of other player rights matters are also expected to be on the table.
The NHLPA will be represented by Executive Director Donald Fehr and lead counsel Steve Fehr along with 13 players while NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and a handful of owners were on hand for the talks. Its unknown if it will only be the Fehr Brothers, Bettman and Daly for the actual negotiating sessions, but bruising Bruins forwards Milan Lucic and Shawn Thornton are among the 13 players.
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The other NHL players in attendance are: Craig Adams. David Backes, Martin Biron, Chris Campoli, Sidney Crosby, Mathieu Darche, Ron Hainsey, Johan Hedberg, Manny Malhotra, Steve Montador and Kevin Westgarth.
While both sides are hopeful the talks will lead to new CBA agreement and the start to the 2012-13 season, it would be surprising if things were wrapped up in a matter of days without at least another snag or two from either side. If the NHL and NHLPA can find common ground quickly, its expected that the NHL will have a shortened regular season in the 64-game range that could start on Dec. 1.