NHL Officially Begins New CBA Talks

The NHL and NHL Players' Association officially began talks on a new collective bargaining agreement Tuesday, TSN's Pierre LeBrun reports.

Last month, commissioner Gary Bettman shared that the two sides would begin CBA discussions the first week of April, but noted that they already had "casual talks" beforehand. Sure enough, it seems like everything is progressing as anticipated.

“I don’t think on either side we’re looking at fundamental issues,” Bettman said at last month's general managers' meeting, per NHL.com. “I’m anticipating based on everything I’m hearing from Marty [Walsh, NHLPA director] that we’ll have good discussions, and I’m hoping we can do this quickly, quietly and painlessly.

“It’s more logistics and operations, understanding technical aspects of their day-to-day lives of dealing with players and rosters and contracts and the like,” Bettman said. “And so, we want to hear what are issues in their mind that are problems, what are things they’d like us to consider, how we might be able to jointly with the Players’ Association do better.”

Next season, which begins on Oct. 7, is the last under the the current CBA. The NHL and NHLPA agreed to the current CBA in 2020.

There are several big changes reportedly on the table.

Bettman reportedly wants to discuss the idea of shortening the preseason and extend the regular season from 82 to 84 games.

“We need to take each other’s temperature and decide if that’s the right thing, so don’t be speculating that that’s an issue and we’re running off doing it,” Bettman said. “Obviously, it’s out there. You’ve been talking about it; we’ve been talking about it internally. But it doesn’t mean we’re there.”

Another big issue on the table is potentially allowing Canadian Hockey League players to play in the NCAA, particularly as it relates to teams maintaining their draft rights.

“We’ll both evaluate what the exclusive negotiating rights windows currently provide and how they attach to different players’ situations that we haven’t contemplated or anticipated before,” Daly said. “That’s just a process. There are existing rules currently, and you can apply them to the players.

“Whether that’s the right result or the perfect result, I would say it probably isn’t, so they should probably be reevaluated on some basis. I think the Players’ Association is prepared to do that, and I think we’re prepared to do that.”

Hopefully, the two sides will be able to come to an agreement without much hassle.