NHL Lockout 2012: New NHL Proposal Will Be 'Off The Table' If Not Accepted By Sept. 15

The NHL and its players' association met for three hours on Wednesday in an attempt to come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement. The current agreement between the two sides is set to expire on Sept. 15.

NHLPA head Donald Fehr stated that the players' association submitted a new proposal to the owners, which addressed a number of the club's concerns. However, he wouldn't specifically state what the contents of the proposal were. In turn, the NHL presented a counter-proposal to the players, which reportedly increased the players' share from previous offers.

NHL counter-proposal today was six years in length: offered to start players' share at 49 percent and end it at 47 percent at end of term

— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) September 12, 2012

This means the players received an increase of $300 million compared to $250 million in the last offer, which is $650 million more than the initial offer from the owners in July. It is believed that the players are interested in a term shorter than six years.

Both sides stated that they were not willing to characterize the nature of the talks in terms of progress, and that both sides needed to examine the proposals further to understand what the offers included.

However, commissioner Gary Bettman stated that if the NHLPA fails to accept this most recent offer before Sept. 15, that it will be pulled from the table and future offers will remove some of the recessions the owners have made.

Both groups are expected to make public statements on Thursday in New York with larger memberships.

Click on the highlighted links to hear the complete press conferences of Donald Fehr and Gary Bettman courtesy of SB Nation's Steve Lepore.

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