The on-again, off-again talks between the NHL and NHL Players Association are back on again.
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and NHLPA special counsel Steve Fehr met throughout the day Saturday and late into the night. Daly said collective bargaining sessions are expected to continue early this week.
The meetings Saturday, the first substantive CBA discussions since Oct. 18, were held at an undisclosed location. They came a day after the NHL announced the cancellation of the 2013 Winter Classic, which added even more urgency to get the dialogue started again between the two sides.
Daly said he and Fehr, the brother of NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, had a "good, frank discussion on the most important issue separating us."
The league had proposed a 50-50 split of hockey-related revenue (HRR), honoring existing player contracts with a "make whole" provision in which players would receive deferred compensation. Donald Fehr and the union have opposed the make-whole plan, which Fehr said would come from the players' share of HRR and amount to "players paying players."
The talks Saturday apparently centered on tweaking the league's make-whole proposal, with the league and players would share in paying the value of the contracts.
Steve Fehr said he hoped to "continue the progress" in the meetings this week, which should resume Tuesday. He indicated Donald Fehr and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman would join the talks.
Sunday marked the 50th day of the NHL lockout -- the third work stoppage of Bettman's tenure. The league has canceled all regular-season games in October and November in the absence of a CBA.
Bettman had said that the season needed to begin this past Friday to enable the playing of a full schedule and the Stanley Cup playoffs by the end of June. It is not known how many of the 326 canceled regular-season games could be played if a CBA were to approved in the next week or two.
It's expected the Winter Classic, which was set New Year's Day in Ann Arbor, Mich., would not be rescheduled this season.
A Raleigh native, Chip has worked at the N&O since 1979 and is the Canes beat writer. He can be reached at