No formal labor talks between the NHL and the Players' Association were scheduled Saturday, so the league's second lockout in less than 10 years and the third NHL lockout since 1995.
The two sides met today, but talks were not formal, according to the L.A. Times:
Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner, met Saturday with Steve Fehr, special counsel for the NHL Players’ Assn., but Daly said afterward they had made no progress toward resolving their dispute.
"We had a nice lunch," Daly said. "At this point, we are obviously far apart on so many important issues, it’s not possible to bridge any gap before a lockout. It’s a shame."
Their conversation, he said, was "nothing new that couldn’t have been talked about last winter." Fehr, brother of NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr, said in a statement that the NHL rebuffed the union’s suggestion that they negotiate on Saturday.
The Minnesota Wild reported earlier this week that they were finished with all of their pre-lockout transactions.
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