in NHL Articles

National Hockey League players shut themselves into a Toronto hotel ballroom until late last night to discuss the new collective bargaining agreement between themselves and the League, and were expected to vote on approving the new deal at some point yesterday. It never happened.

Players joined their union brothers throughout the afternoon, into the night, and the majority of time was spent by players demanding to know what went wrong in their fight against the League imposed salary cap. Also players wanted answers from the union heads in response to why they lost a year for essentially the same deal that they could have gotten in February.

What this means is that what was regarded as basically a rubber-stamp process of player approval may turn into a major stumbling block if the players cannot be convinced of the benefits of this deal.

Players will get a few hours sleep and then they will gather this morning to vote at the end of the session. A news conference with NHLPA president Bob Goodenow and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is scheduled for 5pm, but don’t be surprised to see that timeline pushed back as the NHLPA must first settle a potential leadership issue as Goodenow’s status as head of the players’ association is suddenly under fire.