NHL Is Taking a Final Shot

The NHL is poised to issue a deadline of Monday or Tuesday for the players’ association to agree to a labor deal and will initiate a final round of talks before it becomes the first major professional sports league to cancel an entire season.

With schedules of 28, 30 and 32 games in hand, NHL executives calculated that they must have a general agreement by Tuesday and start the season around Feb. 25. The league will set a “drop-dead” date and present a proposal either today or Thursday, sources said.

An end to the lockout, which has erased 807 regular-season games and Sunday’s All-Star game, may hinge on whether the proposal again centers on a salary cap. Players have said they will never accept a cap, but all-time NHL scoring leader Wayne Gretzky, now managing partner of the Phoenix Coyotes, said Tuesday he wants a salary cap in a new collective bargaining agreement.

“At this point in time for the better of the 30 teams it would be great for hockey,” he said after playing in a scrimmage at his fantasy camp, which concludes today in the Kings’ practice facility at El Segundo. “But whatever is decided, Phoenix is ready to go and ready to play....

“Financially, the Coyotes lose less money not playing, but we lose a lot of credibility in the community with fan support, corporate sponsorship, just community fan base. How long it’s going to take us to rebuild that, I’m not sure.”

Gretzky, who retired in 1999 and took over the Coyotes’ hockey operations in 2001, is still an icon in the game. He said he had spoken with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman “maybe two or three times over the last few months” and hadn’t been invited to intercede. With the season “hanging by a thread,” he said he would step in if asked.

“I would do anything to help the game. But at this point in time, I don’t know if I’m the answer. Maybe Mario [Lemieux] is the guy,” Gretzky said, referring to the Pittsburgh Penguins’ player-owner.

“Here’s a guy that’s an owner and he’s currently playing and he wants to get back to playing.... Maybe he’s the guy that should be the one person to go in there that everyone says, ‘This is making sense.’ ”

Lemieux hasn’t been asked to help break the stalemate, sources said.

The NHL and the union haven’t had contact since Friday. Besides objecting to a cap, players have rebuffed efforts to link payrolls to revenues, contending that owners hide revenues from such sources as suites, parking and local TV deals.

Three players said last week they might accept a cap if it were higher than the NHL’s proposed range of $32 million to $42 million, including benefits, and if the NHL made other concessions. The NHLPA’s negotiating committee has not recommended any proposal to its membership for a full vote.

Because union chief Bob Goodenow is renowned for saving his best offer for the last minute, the NHL was reluctant to set a final deadline. That last minute is coming.

If the season is canceled and the NHL tries to declare an impasse, implement labor conditions and bring in replacement players, Gretzky would be in an awkward position. Although a club executive, he’s a friend of many active players. However, he didn’t rule out employing replacements to play for the Coyotes.

“I’ve read different people’s opinions on it, but I can also say I’ve never heard it talked about on the inside,” Gretzky said. “I’ve never heard the commissioner ever utter those words one time, and I don’t think any of the 30 teams is looking to do that right now.

“Listen, 700 guys are the best players in the world and that’s why they play in the NHL and that’s who we want to have on the ice.”

Brett Hull, who signed with Phoenix over the summer and was a guest at the fantasy camp Tuesday, said he would let the union decide if players should accept a cap. He also said it was too late to salvage this season.

“They should just start getting ready for next year,” he said.

Gretzky disagreed. “It seemed to work in ‘94, when we played 48 games,” he said of the 1994-95 lockout. “I just think it’s important to play any games. The more the better.”

The 1994-95 dispute was resolved in mid-January and produced the collective bargaining agreement that ended Sept. 15, 2004. Although it initially appeared to favor owners, players’ average salary rose from $890,000 in 1995-96 -- the first full season under the new deal -- to $1.83 million in 2003-04. The NHL has said salary growth outstripped revenue growth so badly over the course of the agreement that clubs lost more than $1 billion, including $497 million the last two seasons.

The last 30 games of the 1994-95 season were played from March 3 to May 3, which several fantasy campers cited as reason to believe there’s time to play this season.

“I wouldn’t think that you’d go much below 30 games, but if we could get up and running, playing in that neighborhood, I think both sides would like to see it and the fans would like to see it,” said King General Manager Dave Taylor, who joined his “Triple Crown” linemates, Marcel Dionne and Charlie Simmer, to play against the awe-struck campers.

Dionne, gray-haired at 53 but still able to find the net, said he fears for the future of the game if the lockout lasts into next season.

“I think Canada will get back, but I believe a lot of teams in the United States, people might go back but certainly not to a level they were at,” he said. “I think people have found their way to spend money somewhere else....

“It’s not like there’s no money. You’re talking about $2.1 billion,” he said of the NHL’s revenues. “It’s finding a way to split it.”

Simmer said playing a few games would be better than none.

“There’s too many intelligent people there and too much money at stake, not only for the players and owners but the fans,” he said. “There might be an asterisk at the end of the year with [the name of the winner of] the Stanley Cup, but what it does is you can build all summer on the momentum, for next year.”

Times staff writer Chris Foster contributed to this report.