Progress in NHL talks?

The NHL Players Association Tuesday night was reviewing what NHL commissioner Gary Bettman described as a "significant" counterproposal for a new collective-bargaining agreement that included "meaningful movement" on economic issues. The union plans to respond at the bargaining table Wednesday.

Union executive director Donald Fehr and counsel Steve Fehr received the proposal, which is believed to include changes in how hockey-related revenues are shared, at the NHL offices in Manhattan Tuesday morning and discussed the proposal with some players and attorneys at its office several blocks away for nearly three hours before returning.

The proposal reportedly consists of a phase-in on how hockey-related revenues are shared, but both sides declined to discuss details. The league's initial proposal envisioned a cut of the players' share from 57 percent to 46 percent of hockey-related revenues. The players are willing to accept limited reductions in return for expanded revenue-sharing from wealthier to more financially needy teams.

"In order to move the process along and hopefully engage the union in a way that would bring a negotiation that has traction, we tried to address what we thought were fundamental issues that they were raising," Bettman said. "I'm trying to get us on to the same page, I'm trying to get us on to a common language."

The current agreement expires Sept. 15.

Fehr was noncommital, but acknowledged that the proposal offered new thoughts in some areas. "It's different in some respects from what they did before," he said, and requires further analysis before making an "appropriate response."

Said Bettman: "We're really not that far apart on revenue sharing . . . We've got to deal with the economics, we have had significant revenue sharing and we're offering to expand the revenue sharing. That's not what's going to make or break this deal at this point."