The NHL reviewed the NHLPA's latest proposal before rejecting it and with it bringing a halt to the latest round of talks over a collective bargaining agreement in New York on Wednesday.
The NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman urged the league's last month's proposal is the only solution to the ongoing labor crisis.
"When you're dealing with a union that really isn't trying to negotiate, make any deal that we can live with for the long-term health of this game, there isn't much else you can do," Bettman answered outside the league's Manhattan office to a fan, 41-year-old Jaymes Hall of Lancaster, Pa.
"And we're hoping that with the passage of time, the players' association will come to realize that what we have proposed has been more than fair. And the fact that we're keeping this proposal on the table, when it was contingent on an 82-game season, should be evidence of our desire to get this done the right way."
As per the league's Oct. 16 proposal, both owners and the players will get an equal share in hockey-related revenue.
The NHLPA head Donald Fehr said: "My response is they seem to consider negotiating to be merely agreeing with them. We've identified what's important to players, but they seem to be so far at least unwilling to treat those concerns in a serious way.
"On the big things there was as of today no reciprocity in any meaningful sense, no movement on the players' share, no movement on salary-arbitration eligibility, no movement on free agency eligibility, no agreement on a pension plan."
The NHL Management had been proposing the eligibility age for free agency should be increased to 28 years of age or eight seasons of NHL service, up from 27 years of age or 7 years of service.
"There seems to be a lot of spinning and gamesmanship going on," Bettman said.
The players had already refused to accept any move to increase the eligibility age for free agency.
Ron Hainsey said: "There was no meaningful move in our direction on anything that we would consider."
According to Fehr, players found Wednesday's bargaining sessions useless. "A lot of the people that were there today, given the response we got, thought they had a lot better things to do on the night before Thanksgiving than hear what we got.
"Gary said we were $900 million or a $1 billion apart. At the moment we are exactly $182 million apart."
The league has already scrapped 326 games and the Winter Classic and danger of more games being scrapped is looming.
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