A new NHL labor deal might not be as far off as it seems. Steve Fehr, special counsel to the NHL Players' Association, believes the collective bargaining agreement can be wrapped up in a hurry once the sides make a breakthrough in negotiations.
As quickly as NHL labor negotiations got going again, they came to a screeching halt. Now there is no telling when the league and the players will return to the bargaining table.
The NHL put the course of ongoing labor negotiations back in the hands of the players' association, and left union head Donald Fehr with "some things to consider" Friday night. A bigger problem might be a wider gap between the sides than the players thought.
While negotiators for the National Hockey League and the players union declined to say whether significant progress was made on Day 54 of the lockout, the two sides agreed to return to the bargaining table on Friday for the fourth straight day of talks.
If time spent at the bargaining table indicates progress, the NHL and the locked-out players' association finally could be on their way to making a deal to get hockey back on the ice.