For the first time since September 2019, it appears as though talks will continue between the NHL and the NHLPA on the potential of a possible extension of the collective bargaining agreement. The ultimate goal is to extend the CBA beyond the 2021-22 season. The League and the Players' Association are scheduled to meet in Toronto on Tuesday, February 11th to get the metaphorical ball rolling.
If you'll recall, prior to the 2019-20 season, each side had agreed to waive the right to reopen negotiations, instead, opting to honor the terms of the current CBA, which is set to continue through the 2021-22 season.
Following the agreement, each side took some time away from the bargaining table to focus on other interests. Now that some time has passed, NHLPA executive director Don Fehr has initiated contact with the league to take the temperature of the situation.
"As [Commissioner Gary Bettman] alluded to at his press conference in St. Louis (at 2020 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend), we kind of took a breather after neither side determined to reopen, more at the initiation of the Players' Association than our initiation," NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said on Thursday evening, in a conversation with Dan Rosen of NHL.com. "But I think given the extended time period, I think [NHLPA executive director] Don Fehr wanted to take the chance to take the pulse of his membership again in terms of what issues are important to them and hopefully how to approach reengaging with us and ultimately agreeing on an extension."
The NHL and NHLPA came together numerous times over the course of the summer, in 2019, to discuss the current CBA at length. Daly deemed the conversations to be quite constructive, acknowledging the progress that was made at that time. Progress that Daly hopes will carry over into the next round of discussions.
"I would hope that the constructive dialogue that we had at the time, including some of the changes we were talking about making that would be part of any CBA extension, played a role in the fact that the CBA wasn't reopened," the Deputy Commissioner said. "I think on our side they did, and I think it was a real constructive time period. I thought we made a lot of progress, a lot of headway. Our goal hopefully now that we're going to reengage is to continue that progress."
Among the topics that are expected to be discussed are the World Cup of Hockey - which has not occurred since 2016 - and the Olympics - which the NHL has not participated in since 2014. These are two hot-button issues for the players, who miss the opportunity to take part in best-on-best play and suiting up to represent their country on international ice.
The NHL and NHLPA had discussions with both the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) earlier this week to discuss the possibility of NHL players being allowed to participate in the 2022 Olympic games in Beijing, but there is no certainty that any headway will be made in these negotiations, as there are other factors at play here besides the players' desire to represent their countries.
"Even if the IOC does everything we ask for, I think the only way Olympic participation in 2022 is going to happen is if it's really a part of a bigger negotiation with the Players' Association where we can come back to the Board [of Governors] and say we're recommending going to the Olympics and these are the reasons why," Deputy Commissioner Daly said. "Part of it is tied to our labor situation and labor peace for an extended period of time."
It's not really a matter of the Olympics being disruptive to the NHL schedule at this point. It's more about players making concessions in order to get what they want in the long-term.
As you'd expect, updates on this situation will be made available once information from the February 11th discussions begins to surface.
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