Players Say No Strike if There’s No Lockout : Hockey: Bettman to rule on proposal today, but it seems unlikely season will begin as scheduled Saturday.

NHL players will find out today whether they should pack their bags for Saturday’s season-opening games or pack it in and prepare for a prolonged battle with owners.

Commissioner Gary Bettman will announce today if a no-strike pledge offered Thursday by the NHL Players Assn. has persuaded him to allow the season to start as scheduled.

Indications were that Bettman, who said last week he would not allow the first puck to be dropped if a collective bargaining agreement was not in place, will reject the promise and authorize a postponement of the NHL’s 78th season.

Bettman conferred with members of the league’s Board of Governors Thursday by conference call, but no vote was taken on the players’ offer. However, no vote would be required for Bettman to order a delay.

“We made a business proposal that would keep the game in place and keep the season uninterrupted,” said Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHLPA. “It would avoid a labor fight. And if there is a labor fight, it will be a long, nasty, dirty fight, there’s no question about that.”

He said the players were willing to put an agreement in writing. The owners’ response, he said, “will very much clarify what their real purpose is.”

A gag order was imposed on the governors, but sources said that at least four clubs--the New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins and Dallas Stars--were opposed to accepting the players’ pledge and adamant about establishing the salary-revenue connection Bettman advocates.

The players’ offer, which would extend through the playoffs, would also require Bettman to restore a series of benefits he withdrew Aug. 1. He has previously said he would give back those benefits, which include meal money and insurance payments, if an agreement were reached before the season began.

Goodenow said the pledge addressed Bettman’s concern that hockey’s integrity would suffer if he allowed the season to begin and players voted later to walk out.

“This removes the NHL’s only stated reason for an Oct. 1 player lockout threat,” Goodenow said. “The players are prepared to commit to playing the entire season, once again, with our old contract, so hockey’s momentum will continue to grow.

“If the NHL wants a labor fight now, so be it. The players are fully prepared to sustain a long battle throughout the season. We made this proposal because we are mindful of the effects a long owner lockout will have on our game. We hope our proposal will allow us to have another great, uninterrupted season.”

About a dozen prominent players joined Goodenow at the news conference in Toronto. Coincidentally, it was held at SkyDome, home of the striking baseball Blue Jays.

Among those attending were the Kings’ Wayne Gretzky and Marty McSorley, who took a red-eye flight to Canada after the team’s exhibition finale Wednesday night at the Forum. Gretzky, who has been sharply critical of Bettman and the commissioner’s lack of experience in the game, took the tack Thursday that a postponement would not benefit owners, even though they would not have to pay players’ salaries during a lockout.

Gretzky, however, will receive his $6-million signing bonus.

“He’s the man that has told them, ‘I will deliver something to you.’ That’s what we believe, and he’s trying to do the best possible job he can for his side,” Gretzky said. “I know the Los Angeles Kings want to play hockey. I know our management would like to see the season start. I know our owners would like to see us play in San Jose on Saturday.

“We’re all very disappointed. We all want the season to begin Saturday, especially with all the success hockey has had recently . . . the success we’ve had now in Florida, with Tampa Bay and Miami franchises doing so well, and Dallas, and of course the three California teams.

“We’re willing to play this year to push our league to another level and we hope the owners in the league feel the same way, that this is not the right time for a lockout.”

Mike Gartner, president of the NHLPA, contended that a lockout might drive away new and old fans who are unhappy over the labor strife in baseball and hockey.

“I think there wouldn’t be anything worse to alienate the fans than not having hockey at all,” he said. “If you see baseball and what’s happened in baseball, the national pastime of the United States, people turned it off in a heartbeat. What do you think is going to happen to hockey? What’s going to happen to the markets that have just been brought on in the United States?

“I think it’s going to seriously hurt all the steps that have been made over the last number of years, especially the last couple of years. I don’t think it’s going to be good for the game at all. I would certainly hope the owners realize that.”

Goodenow, who refused to speculate on what Bettman planned to do, acknowledged that an accord is not close. The NHL’s rejection of the players’ pledge would not sweeten the tone of the talks.

“If there is a lockout and this proposal is rejected, things that have been said in the past and the positions of parties would probably change considerably,” he said.

The league’s most recent proposal, which was formally rejected by the NHLPA on Wednesday, centered on a graduated levy imposed on teams whose payrolls exceeded a negotiated figure. That amount would probably be $15-$16 million, reflecting the average payroll last season. The fees would be paid into a fund to be disbursed to small-market clubs.

Players, who vetoed that plan because they say it represents a restraint on salaries, have proposed 5.5% levies on the salaries and gate receipts of the clubs whose revenues rank in the top 16 of the NHL’s 26 franchises. The funds would be redistributed to the teams whose revenues rank in the bottom 10.

Under that formula, the top-ranked New York Rangers would pay $2.406 million into the pool. The Kings, who rank fourth, would pay $2.237 million. The Mighty Ducks, who rank 12th, would pay $1.669 million.

The biggest beneficiary would be the Winnipeg Jets, who would receive $8.239 million, and the Edmonton Oilers, who would get about $5 million.

Goodenow also said Chicago Blackhawk defenseman Chris Chelios had apologized for comments about Bettman on Wednesday.

Chelios had said, “If I was Gary Bettman, I’d be worried about my family, about my well-being right now. Some crazed fan or even a player, who knows, might take it into his own hands and figure that if they get him out of the way this might get settled. You’d hate to see something like that happen, but he took the job.

“The main thing is, he doesn’t know anything about hockey. That’s obvious. He doesn’t recognize players like Jeremy Roenick and Brendan Shanahan at the meetings. Maybe it is the little-man syndrome. . . . He’s the problem.”

Goodenow said he believed the comments to be a product of players’ frustration and uncertainty but said he did not condone it. He said Chelios “did the right thing” in apologizing.