Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux performed magnificent feats on the ice. Now, they’re trying to do something more improbable: resurrect the NHL season, which was cancelled on Wednesday by Commissioner Gary Bettman.
Well-placed sources said Thursday that Gretzky, managing partner of the Phoenix Coyotes, and Lemieux, player/owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins, spoke to Bettman in an effort to explore whether the season can be salvaged. Sources also said Trevor Linden, president of the NHL Players’ Association and Mike Gartner, the NHLPA’s director of business relations, met with Bettman in New York Thursday while players called the union’s Toronto office to express concern about the failed negotiations.
The activity, several sources said, might result in players pressuring union chief Bob Goodenow to propose a deal that would include a salary cap set between $45 million and $46 million, and a prohibitive luxury tax. The union’s last offer, made Tuesday, set the cap at $49 million; the NHL’s final offer, also made Tuesday, was for a $42.5 million cap that wasn’t linked to league-wide revenues.
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Bettman and other NHL executives were contacted Thursday by a handful of owners who expressed anxiety about the economic damage a cancellation might cause. Bettman was said to be out of his New York office most of the day and unavailable for comment.
Bill Daly, the NHL’s chief legal officer, said Thursday he and Bettman had spoken to many owners and players in the days preceding the cancellation but that he had not been contacted by the union about reviving the season.
“I’d be happy to take that call and happy to have that problem,” he said. “But so far, we don’t.”
Sources said the call might be made Friday. Gretzky told a Toronto radio station he had not been involved in “formal conversations,” but said he had discussed the league’s predicament with Lemieux.
A source said Gretzky had broached the idea of a salary cap compromise and that Bettman didn’t reject it but said the union would have to make such an offer.
“There is a slight chance that this could work,” said a source familiar with the back-channel efforts. “But it is a chance.”
Bettman on Wednesday said the NHL would have lost money for two years if the union had accepted the league’s proposed $42.5 million cap, but that he would have taken short-term losses to put players back on the ice and generate revenues again after a five-month lockout. For the NHL, a cap at around $45 million would have to be accompanied by other restrictions designed to discourage lavish spending.
“I would love nothing more than to strike while the iron’s hot so to speak, and take advantage of whatever little momentum we were able to gain in the last week and try to get a deal done in short order, so that we can work with the PA to prepare to relaunch the NHL as strong as we possibly can be come next September and October,” Daly said.
Ted Saskin, senior director of the NHLPA, said players had not pushed the union to make a season-saving deal.
“There are no back-channel talks,” Saskin said by phone. “What we’re hearing are rumors about various owners and general managers who are looking for some kind of continuation of the negotiations because they are not satisfied with the way Gary ended the negotiations.
“Since that time, Gary said they would be willing to look at a higher number. We wish he would have said that in the negotiating process.”