NHL
No news is good news when it comes to the ongoing talks between the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association on the collective bargaining agreement extension.
That’s where I started my phone interview Friday afternoon with longtime deputy commissioner Bill Daly.
Here’s what I found out about the CBA and other issues facing the league.
(Note: This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.)
I’d like to start with an update on collective bargaining, knowing both sides have been keeping a low profile on it. We know CBA talks officially started back in early April. There’s lots of time before the current CBA expires in September 2026, but commissioner Gary Bettman has been hopeful all year of a deal getting done as early as the Stanley Cup Final. Where do talks sit at the moment, and can you update a potential timeline for an extension getting done?
Well, we’re well underway. I think we’ve made good progress. I think both sides have been able to put proposals on the table and exchange views on those proposals. So I think it’s progressing well. I don’t have any timetable for you, but I would like to think that we’ll have a successful conclusion at some point in the not-too-distant future.
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We won’t have to wait until September 2026, then, it sounds like.
That would be well beyond the window that I’m thinking.
It is my understanding that finding a potential solution or tweak for LTIR (long-term injured reserve) and the fact that there’s no salary cap in the playoffs has been discussed as part of these CBA talks. I know you can’t get into specifics, but is that accurate that both sides are looking for a potential tweak in that area?
Yes, that’s been discussed across the table (with the NHLPA).
Is it your sense that it will happen? Or just that it’s been discussed?
Nothing’s done until it’s done, but I would tell you that I think we’ve made progress toward getting to a good resolution on that issue.
I guess there’s no point asking what that will look like?
No.
OK, so the NHL has a decentralized draft on tap for late next month. Teams voted overwhelmingly to switch to this format, but now, already, I’m hearing a lot of teams complain they want to go back to the traditional draft format. What are the chances this decentralized draft is a one-off?
You know what, it’s hard to handicap that, right? Until we go through the decentralized draft, we won’t know what it looks like and what it feels like and how the clubs respond to it. I agree that I’ve heard people from clubs have kind of taken a different position now than their club may have taken when we originally looked at this.
But again, I’m not sure it’s important yet because we haven’t seen what the alternative looks like yet. Look, on an issue like this, we would follow the will of our clubs. And if a large majority of our clubs want to go back (to the traditional draft format), I’m sure we would consider going back. But I think that is premature to speculate at this point.
The commissioner was recently quoted about Atlanta possibly getting a third chance to have an NHL team, and we know Houston has been speculated as a front-runner market. The commissioner was also clear that there wasn’t anything new, as far as a formal expansion process. But it sure feels like the league is inching closer to reopening an expansion process. Do you agree with that?
No, I don’t, only because I might quibble with what an expansion process is defined as. I think what the commissioner has said, and I’ll echo, is that if the right opportunity for expansion came along and all the boxes were checked, we would bring that to the Board (of Governors) on some basis. We’d bring it obviously to our Executive Committee first, and then, if appropriate, the (full) Board, and kind of take their temperature on whether it’s something they want to pursue.
I think what Gary is clear about is, there is no current intention to open up a formal expansion process and invite bids. It’s much more of a one-on-one conversation and relationship we have with various potential owners.
So, no timeline on any of those situations, either?
No.
If and when there is expansion, what would you say to people concerned about the talent pool being watered down with more teams? It is a fact, to be sure, that there has been growth all over the world in terms of the number of people playing the game. Do the numbers back that up in Europe and the U.S.?
Well, that would be my answer to it — that would be my response to it (the growth of the game). That is a concern that I would have had when I joined the league — and was a concern. I’m not going to say it was a valid concern, but when we expanded by four clubs in the late ‘90s, I think some people felt that on a worldwide basis, we didn’t have enough elite talent to adequately stock teams to that degree.
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I think the world has changed dramatically in the last 25 years in terms of elite-level hockey development, where the players come from, how broad a scope that is. I’ll use rough numbers, but Canadian content (player makeup of NHL) is in the low 40s, U.S. content about 30 percent and European content is about 30 percent. There was significant growth in both the United States and Europe. So we have more than enough talent, from my perspective. That’s not even a minor concern.
Speaking of Europe and switching gears to international hockey, any update on where things stand with the IIHF and its involvement in the February 2028 World Cup of Hockey?
We’re continuing to have discussions. Actually, we and the Players’ Association will have representation (this) week in Stockholm (at the World Championships). I’m flying to Stockholm on Sunday night, and I expect that we’ll have some meetings relevant to the World Cup while we’re over there.
As a follow-up to that, and I can’t imagine I’ve missed this, but there still hasn’t been any official announcement of an Olympic deal between the NHL, NHLPA, IOC and IIHF for Italy next February?
That’s correct.
Any concern with that?
My level of concern or optimism on that issue hasn’t changed over the course of time. We’re going to be going to Milan, is what I’ll say — definitively.
So this is about dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, then?
Yes. Look, there’s still some things in the agreement that can’t even be signed off on as of yet, just because of the timetable of where we are. I don’t think there’s anything fundamentally holding this up other than logistics.
And just to reiterate, the plan, as it stands, is best-on-best hockey with NHL participation at the Olympics next February in Italy, then a World Cup of Hockey in ’28, then the Olympics in France in 2030, then another NHL-NHLPA World Cup of Hockey in 2032? So, best-on-best hockey every two years from here on in?
Yes. That’s the plan.
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Switching gears, I would imagine the league has kept tabs on the ongoing criminal trial in London, Ontario, involving the five players from the 2018 Canadian World Juniors team. What do you anticipate the league saying at the conclusion of that trial? Correct me if I’m wrong, but the league said it would have more to say on its own investigation once it was appropriate from a legal perspective, right?
Yes, I think that’s fair. And since I have no idea what’s going to transpire in that criminal trial, I think we’re still at the same stage. I don’t think there’s anything that’s really been changed from our perspective in terms of process. We’ll wait to see how those proceedings end, and we’ll make appropriate decisions at appropriate times in terms of how it affects or doesn’t affect those players’ rights and their status vis-à-vis the NHL.
And just to be clear, all five players are NHL free agents, but what is their status otherwise in the league’s eyes right now?
They’re free agents. They’re not under suspension per se. I don’t want to play the hypothetical game (in terms of what might happen after the trial). They’re all free agents, technically, in terms of their status under our CBA. … I don’t want to get ahead of the process.
On to a subject I know you’ve spent a lot of time on over the years: the league’s concussion protocols. I covered a game in the first round where Dallas Stars defenseman Lian Bischel crashed into the boards and was down and out for quite a while. He left the game but returned next period, which I found surprising.
And more recently, Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz took a wrist shot to the head in Game 1 against the Florida Panthers, which knocked his mask off, then in the second period took an elbow to the head and sprawled to the ice in discomfort. He later left the game after vomiting near the bench during a break in play.
Both instances gave me pause as far as the league’s concussion spotter and how that worked. I know you get updated on these things. What’s your sense of that, and is your belief that the system is working properly?
I’ll start with the second question first. We do believe the system is working properly. We’ve gotten really no indication that it’s not. I’m not going to get specific with respect to specific incidents, but it won’t surprise you that there is follow-up done in cases where there’s reason to ask questions. Those questions are asked. And to this point, I will tell you, clearly with respect to every incident in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs, those questions have been answered satisfactorily from our perspective.
There’s no debate that the playoffs this year have been very entertaining. But I still come back to the current playoff format. I know the commissioner told me at the March GM meetings that he strongly believes in the current format and doesn’t want to change it. But I wonder if the league and NHLPA would consider, as part of CBA talks, tweaking the format?
The context would be having a series like the Dallas Stars-Colorado Avalanche in the first round, which is a conference-final-level series.
Yeah, so the way I would answer that is at any point in time on any issue, there can be discussions between the NHL and the NHLPA, but I will say that with respect to this particular issue, it hasn’t even been raised or discussed as part of our (CBA) discussions with the Players’ Association. Look, we have our own view with respect to the merits to the current system. There does not appear to be agitation on the players’ side about that format.
Well, that’s like a knife right in my heart.
(Laughs)
And finally, and you knew this was coming based on us having this running conversation for many years, but is there any world at all in which the league (and the NHLPA) would consider starting the regular season earlier and awarding the Stanley Cup earlier in June?
I understand the complexities of satisfying the U.S. TV rights-holders who don’t want hockey in the first week of October, and perhaps some U.S. Southern markets and teams who don’t want a busy October, but I’m not sure having the Stanley Cup end in late June a few days before the draft like we had last year is that practical, either. Where are you on the issue of the NHL calendar?
I think we do recognize the hardships that come along with tight schedules. Having said that, there are a lot of things and initiatives that we’re packing in that we want to accomplish that we think are good for the sport and the profile of the sport. As with anything else, it’s a balance.
Do I foresee in the relatively near future a regular season that starts in September? No. Having said that, and you and I have talked about this before, we certainly have looked at the possibility of moving the start of the regular season earlier and trying to accommodate everything that we need to do over the course of a regular season and a two-month playoff period. And so, the best way for me to answer that question is that it’s an ongoing issue that’s kind of monitored and is debated and ultimately, at the end of the day, we make decisions because we think they’re the best decisions in the interest of the sport. That’ll continue to be our process.
Well, that gives me hope, then. That’s what I get out of that answer. That gives me hope of eventually having the season end earlier.
OK, there you go.
(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Pierre LeBrun has been a senior NHL columnist for The Athletic since 2017. He has been an NHL Insider for TSN since 2011 following six years as a panelist on Hockey Night In Canada. He also appears regularly on RDS in Montreal. Pierre previously covered the NHL for ESPN.com and The Canadian Press. Follow Pierre on Twitter @PierreVLeBrun
