NHL, union get back to bargaining with mediators

Negotiators from the NHL and the players' association returned to the bargaining table Wednesday for the first time in a week and the first time with outside voices contributing to the talks.

The location was secret, and so was what was discussed, but the talks went well enough that the sides will be back at the negotiating table Thursday.

"No comments," was all NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly would say Wednesday night in an email to The Associated Press.

NHLPA executive director Don Fehr issued a short statement, saying: "A small group of NHLPA staff and players met today with two experienced FMCS mediators. We expect that these discussions will resume on Thursday."

It was the first meeting between the sides since a get-together that lasted just over two hours last week in New York after the locked-out players' association made a new comprehensive proposal that was quickly rejected by the NHL.

The sides agreed Monday to use the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. George Cohen, the service's director, assigned deputy director Scot Beckenbaugh and director of mediation services John Sweeney to the negotiations. Beckenbaugh and Sweeney met separately with the two sides before talks began in full Wednesday.

It wasn't immediately known how long negotiations went on before they ended in the early evening.

In the previous meeting last week, Fehr said the sides were $182 million apart in a five-year deal, which comes to $1.2 million annually for each of the 30 teams.