Commissioner Gary Bettman, with the unanimous support of the NHL's board of governors, locked out the players Wednesday after months of unsuccessful and acrimonious negotiations on a new labour agreement.
The lockout came into effect on Wednesday at midnight when the previous collective bargaining agreement expired.
The move delays the start of training camps in cities across North America. There is also concern among hockey fans that the dispute between the owners and players could wipe out the entire hockey season.
Bob Goodenow, president of the NHL Players Association, listens to a question during a news conference in Toronto on Wednesday September 15, 2004. The NHL pulled the plug on hockey Wednesday, with an emotional Gary Bettman painting a bleak picture of a Grand Canyon-sized divide between owners and the Players' Association. (CP PHOTO/Frank Gunn)
The last lockout, in 1994, lasted 104 days and a total of 468 games were lost. Play resumed Jan. 20, 1995.
Bettman apologized to hockey fans for the lockout, but said it was necessary because it was impossible for the league to continue under the current system.
"When we have the right system, and it's agreed to ... if there's enough time to play some games, we'll do it and if there's not, we won't."
NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow said shutting down the game of hockey is simply the wrong way to address the issues the NHL is facing.
"The players have been prepared to compromise for a very long time and have proposed frameworks that should already have produced a deal that is fair for all. Unfortunately, the league has rejected all opportunities for compromise."
The NHLPA contends the owners are determined to impose a salary cap – something the players refuse to accept.
'Until [Bettman] gets off the salary-cap issue, there's not a chance for us to get an agreement,'' Goodenow. "[The players] are not prepared to entertain a salary cap in any way, shape, measure or form.''
The NHL denies it covets a salary cap. Bettman says a good number of the league's teams are unprofitable and what owners want is "cost certainty."
Bettman stated NHL clubs have lost more than $1.8 billion US during the current 10-year CBA, while the average player salary has soared to $1.8 million per year from $733,000.
Bettman is looking for an agreement that would see a 60-40 split of player expenditures and revenue that is more in line with the three other major North American sports leagues – the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball.
No meetings between the two sides have been scheduled for the foreseeable future.
"There will be some discussions in the future but when and where I have no idea," Goodenow said.
Some hockey observers have speculated that the league's strategy is to drag the dispute on for at least a year and then declare an impasse. The NHL would then re-open for business under a unilaterally imposed labour agreement which would include a salary cap.
The owners are betting that after more than a year without a paycheque, a fair number of players would return to the game.
"I think that is a very ill-advised strategy and I think the results of [that strategy] could be catastrophic," Goodenow said
While the NHL has cutback a number of jobs due to the lockout decision, the NHLPA has vowed not eliminate any positions. The seven executives who make up the NHLPA will not be paid during the lockout.
with files from CP Online
