The Athletic’s LeBrun updates NHL-NHLPA negotiations regarding 20-21 season

The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun updates us on the latest developments between the NHLPA and the NHL as they pertain to a probable 2020-2021 NHL season:

The NHL Players’ Association finally did get back to the NHL over the weekend regarding its financial asks, as my TSN pal Darren Dreger first reported Monday night. But when the NHLPA made some CBA asks in return, the league said “thanks but no thanks,” as one source put it to me. You can’t fault the players for wanting something in return for potentially tweaking a document they signed five months ago.

Both sides confirm the financial terms from the Memorandum of Understanding, signed in June as part of the CBA extension, will stand as is.

So now it’s full steam ahead on continuing to hammer out details for the 2020-21 season, which both sides hope will begin on Jan. 13. There’s still sizeable work to be done on scheduling, COVID protocols, critical dates, etc.

And then, and this is key, once both sides finalize a season package, both sides will have to bring it to their respective constituents for clearance. The NHL’s Board of Governors and the NHLPA’s Executive Board will have to sign off on the plans.

Continued (paywall)

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, when MLive hired me to work their SlapShots blog, and I joined Kukla's Korner in 2011 as The Malik Report. I'm starting The Malik Report as a stand-alone site, hoping that having my readers fund the website is indeed the way to go to build a better community and create better content.