The Messenger said:
Is there really any hope for a negotiated settlement in your opinion ??.
There always is. If enough of the right type of pressure is applied, definitely. What exactly that is and which side will be the most affected by it, we don't know yet. One thing is for sure, the noose is tightening around both parties (NHL feeling the pinch of decreased sponsor revenues and the PA feeling the heat from the players that simply want to play). Actually, both those hurt the players if they want to keep a pretty high salary but for the purposes of these negotiations, each side can feel the cement hardening around their feet.
The latest NHL proposal to the NHLPA last week during meetings was according to Stan Fischler
Personally I just don't see how the NHL Owners expect a deal to get done when their offers are in this range ..
How many teams last season had payrolls in that range ?? Florida, Pittsburgh, Nashville, ??
How can the players tell Goodenow to accept that ??
For the sake of argument, let's say I believe those numbers (I don't really, the media has shown time and again how they can conveniently leave out relevant and important info or simply get it totally wrong). But those numbers are pretty much bunk, from both sides.
I know they'd both like to have those at the final numbers, but they both know that isn't going to happen unless one side completely and totally cracks. The NHL will go up to get a settlement, the PA will go down to get a settlement. Another important element is what will become of the other fairly heated issues; arbitration, qualifying offers, etc. That will have an effect on how this all plays out in the end. I'm not comfortable simply discussing just the final numbers, as there is much more that has to take place before any agreement comes about. One or both sides could make the other issues directly related to the final cap numbers/linkage percentage, causing even more headaches. Or they could both (truthfully) say we want to get a deal done, and they could hammer this out in a couple weeks.
If you want real answers, then I'm going to disappoint you. I know so little real information and this entire situation is quite unpredictable, the best that any of us can come up with is conjecture about one in what is likely thousands of scenarios that could play out here.