Rick NashMILTON, Ontario — The NHL and the NHL Players' Association are set for another round of negotiations this week with the hope of establishing a new collective bargaining agreement before the current one expires on Sept. 15. Executive Director Donald Fehr said owners “have pointed us in a direction of some very tough hills to climb," with three days of talks set to begin Tuesday in Toronto. Fehr said the NHLPA is not yet prepared to make a counteroffer to the owners' initial proposal. Fehr said the players will make their offer, “when we're ready." There were multiple reports coming out of the last round of talks that the owners' offer included players' hockey-related revenues get slashed from 57 percent to 46 percent. It also was reported that players would be forced to wait 10 years before becoming unrestricted free agents and that contracts would be limited to five years. “We've asked for a bunch of additional financial information," Fehr said at an NHLPA charity golf tournament at Milton, Ontario. “They've indicated that the preparation is in progress and we'll need to review that before we come to any final conclusions." The owners want to cap salaries and shorten years of a deal, but that didn't stop the Philadelphia Flyers from signing Nashville Predators defenseman Shea Weber to a staggering 14-year offer sheet worth $110 million last week. “What I've said about player contracts, and I'll continue to say especially when you see one like that one, or the earlier ones this year or things in past years and so on, is that contracts speak for themselves," Fehr said. “You don't have to be somebody extraordinarily well-versed in the intricacies of hockey and economics and capology to draw conclusions from it," he added. Fehr said negotiations are scheduled to go on next week, as well. The NHL regular season is slated to start on Oct. 11. Rangers land Nash Persistence finally paid off for the New York Rangers as they landed high-scoring Columbus Blue Jackets captain Rick Nash Monday as part of a seven-player trade that was five months in the making. The 28-year-old face of the Columbus franchise was dealt to New York along with minor league defenseman Steven Delisle and a conditional third round draft pick in 2013 for forwards Artem Anisimov and Brandon Dubinsky, defensive prospect Tim Erixon and a first round draft pick in 2013. Nash has scored at least 30 goals in seven of his nine NHL seasons and will be expected to spark a Rangers offense that had difficulty scoring in the 2012 NHL playoffs. — Agencies
