Collective Bargaining Agreement Talks To Begin As Early As Next Week

The head of the NHL Players Union said Monday that negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement will begin “very quickly” perhaps as early as this week and didn’t rule out talks stretching into the season.

New NHL Players Association executive director Donald Fehr said negotiations will begin after Wednesday’s meeting of the NHLPA’s executive board, though he did not specify a date. He was in Chicago for three days of union talks.

The NHL canceled the 2004-05 season before a labor deal was reached that included a salary cap for the first time. That agreement expires on Sept. 15.

Fehr was asked whether a work stoppage was inevitable.

“None of that is coming from our side,” he said. “That’s the first thing. Secondly, we have not made a proposal. We haven’t heard an owners’ proposal.”

He also shrugged off concerns about having a deal in place by the time the season begins.

“There’s nothing magic about September 15. The law is that if you don’t have a new agreement, and as long as both sides are willing to keep negotiating, you can continue to play under the terms of the old one until you reach an agreement,” he said.

Asked if that could happen in this instance, Fehr said, “All I know is that in baseball, there were any number of occasions in which we played while the parties were continuing to negotiate.”

A work stoppage, he said, would be a “last resort.”