NHL realignment plan delayed






A source told ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun a possible next step for the NHL could be to bring a grievance against the NHLPA, if the league feels the players' association unreasonably withheld its consent. If the league wins that grievance, it could unilaterally implement realignment for the 2013-14 season.

Daly told LeBrun the league got the final "thumbs down" from the NHLPA Friday.

NHLPA executive director Don Fehr issued a statement Friday night.

"As realignment affects players' terms and conditions of employment, the CBA requires the league to obtain the NHLPA's consent before implementation," Fehr said. "Over the last month, we have had several discussions with the league and extensive dialogue with players, most recently on an executive board conference call on Jan. 1. Two substantial player concerns emerged: whether the new structure would result in increased and more onerous travel; and the disparity in chances of making the playoffs between the smaller and larger divisions.


Last month at the board of governors' meetings in Pebble Beach, Calif., the board gave commissioner Gary Bettman the authority to realign the league from its current six-division format to four conferences of seven or eight teams. However, the NHLPA said it needed to agree on any plan and wanted more details about how it would affect travel, competitive balance and revenues. Daly said at the time that didn't anticipate any issues that would prevent the issues from being resolved in a few weeks.


"Obviously, there's been some conflict as far as the decision-making goes, so eventually, probably going to have to find a common ground, to find some way to make it work," Carolina captain Eric Staal said.

"The way it is now, I don't mind. I think for us, for our team, going into a division against Washington, New York, Pittsburgh, Philly, whatever. The division we were in, it would have been tough."





Florida player representative Mike Weaver also commented about the move.

"We were prepared for the realignment from the NHL, but we weren't given every bit of information regarding it. How can you make an educated decision without all the proper information?" Weaver said. "We asked for the reasoning and that reasoning was not produced. They were not open to discussions about it.

"As far as travel goes, it's a big important issue. I don't know why the NHL wouldn't make it easier for everyone. More travel means being away from families more. It is going to make it tougher. It's already tough now. I just wish they were fair with us. They didn't want to give us any information about it. We're going to have longer road trips, like 10 days on the road. It's tough enough now and they didn't make it any easier."


"The issue is that we asked for some documentation to figure out if they had done any travel projections," Adams said. "We wanted to see how it would change the current set up and if it would change financials. Up to this point, they haven't given us any information. We aren't turning it down outright. "We just haven't seen anything from them that convinced us that it's a good idea."
