NHL makes new proposal to players

After more than a week of silence, the NHL has reportedly slightly sweetened its offer to the NHLPA, and the union is said to be discussing the proposal on a conference call this afternoon.

It is the first recent movement from either side in the impasse, which has reached 104 days, and has cost both sides more than $1.1 billion.

"In light of media reports this morning, I can confirm that we delivered to the Union a new, comprehensive proposal for a successor CBA late yesterday afternoon," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement. "We are not prepared to discuss the details of our proposal at this time. We are hopeful that once the Union's staff and negotiating committee have had an opportunity to thoroughly review and consider our new proposal, they will share it with the players. We want to be back on the ice as soon as possible."

According to ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun, the league raised its five-year limit on individual contracts to six for players changing teams, and kept the seven-year limit on teams signing their own players. The union wants eight years.

The league apparently is standing firm on a 10-year CBA, with an eight-year opt out. The union proposed an eight-year pact with a six-year opt-out. 

And the $300-million “make-whole” plan offered by the league as a transition over several years for existing player contracts is back in the proposal. Commissioner Gary Bettman said it was off the table after days of talks between owners and players blew up in a Manhattan hotel in early December.

For a 48-game season to be salvaged, the consensus is that an agreement on a new CBA would have to be reached by around Jan. 11.