Bantering Points: NHL CBA Negotiations Update And Steven Fogarty At USA World Juniors
- Just 24 hours after Gary Bettman dropped a bomb on the entire hockey community, things have began to heat up in regards to the CBA. The NHLPA is expected to submit their counter-proposal on Tuesday afternoon, and things will hopefully kick into high gear.
- After the big letdown yesterday, a lot of fans around the NHL were severely disappointed. However, both the NHL and NHLPA remained optimistic that a deal could still be decided on before September 15th. Both Ron Hansey (Winnipeg Jets), and Bill Daley expressed that a deal could still get done, and allow for the regular season to start on time, but it would take a lot of "hard work". While there is still a considerable divide between both sides, it's good news to see they want to get a deal done quickly.
- While we're talking about the CBA, Henrik Lundqvist took to the Twitterverse yesterday, to express his feelings towards the NHL owners. Here is what Lundqvist had to share, "The NHL says they won’t play past Sept 15th under current deal. Apparently they don’t like the deal they designed." All I can say to that one is yeesh. If that's the feelings around the room for the NHLPA, these meetings can't be pretty at all.
Follow after the jump for more.
- Here's some interesting information, if in fact, we do end up with another NHL lockout. These reports are unconfirmed at the moment, but apparently Donald Fehr has contacted officials inside the KHL about conducting exhibition games against its players. The games would consist of NHL All-Stars competing against the All-Stars from the KHL, which would be played in Moscow, Halifax, Quebec City, and an undisclosed town in Southern Ontario. Even if there isn't a lockout, can we still do this anyway? It seems like a pretty cool idea for All-Star weekend.
- Finally we have an update coming from the United States World Junior camp. According to Chris Peters of the United States of Hockey, Steven Fogarty has shown vast improvements since the evaluation camp has begun. Peters states that Fogarty showed his speed, puck moving ability, and hockey I.Q. much more efficiently in USA's game against Finland, earlier during the week, and could solidify a spot in the bottom-six if he keeps up the solid play.
