Things appear to be going well in CBA negotiations between NHL owners and the locked-out players union, but the NHLPA is working to keep its options open in case things go south again.
While the Jan. 2 deadline for the players to disclaim interest passed at midnight, Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos is reporting that the union will vote again to grant its executive board authority to disclaim, possibly as soon as Thursday.
While the process took five days the last time — and the vote is only to give the union’s board the option to disclaim, not to actually do it — CSNNE.com’s Joe Haggerty reports that it could take “as little as a day” for the NHLPA to do it this time. The union likely wants to keep the threat of disclaiming in play, in order to have a modicum of leverage at the negotiating table with owners.
If the executive board were to disclaim interest, the union would effectively dissolve and the players could pursue an anti-trust lawsuit against the NHL. The NHL has already filed a class-action lawsuit against the union, asking a judge to rule the lockout legal and in turn block the players from suing.
