NHL Players' Association executive Donald Fehr sent his players a message detailing just how far apart his union is from the league. In the memo, which was obtained by sports legal analyst Eric Macramalla, Fehr said the league simply wants to reduce player salaries.
He added that the goal from the NHLPA standpoint was at first to avoid causing a dispute, that being the reason why it hasn't been aggressive giving proposals to the league. Fehr's message laid out the basics of the proposals offered by the NHLPA and those of the NHL:
Fehr: NHLPA proposed $260M/year in team rev sharing - $140M in regular sharing and $120M in to assist troubled team #sportslaw #lockout
— Eric Macramalla (@EricOnSportsLaw) September 20, 2012
#Fehr: NHL proposed lowering salaries to 49%, 48% in year 2 and 47% for last 4 seasons; reduction equals 14% (yr1), 16% (yr2) and 17.5%
— Eric Macramalla (@EricOnSportsLaw) September 20, 2012
In the memo, Fehr went on to say that if the revenue growth of the league is at 7.1 percent, then the rate salaries would decline by a total of $1 billion during the first three years of the collective bargaining agreement. Fehr also told the players that the NHL will keep the lockout going until the players agree to take pay cuts, giving little evidence that any form of talks between the two sides are close to beginning.
On the whole, the NHLPA executive is accusing the league of demanding the reduction of salaries with no benefit to the players thereafter.
For more NHL lockout coverage, head over to SB Nation's NHL hub.