Report: NHLPA has a Plan B for lockout, and it involves KHL All-Stars

Thursday's round of CBA negotiations produced quite a bit of doom and gloom as Gary Bettman announced that the NHL would not play another season under the current agreement.

In other words: if no new deal is reached by September 15, the lockout is on.

That doesn't mean the NHLPA doesn't have a Plan B, and on Friday John Shannon of Sportsnet passed along the basic nuts and bolts of their idea. It involves a group KHL All-Stars, a group of players from the NHL, and what would basically be a series of barnstorming games through parts of Canada and Russia.

The details, as of now, from Sportsnet:

With a lockout looming larger, the National Hockey League Players' Association is quietly making plans for a series of star-studded exhibition games should the NHL shut down this fall.

Sources tell Sportsnet's John Shannon that games between a team of Russian all-stars from the Kontinental Hockey League and "world" all-stars from the NHL are tentatively set for Moscow, Halifax and Quebec City, as well as an undetermined site in Southern Ontario. Donald Fehr, the NHLPA's executive director, spoke with representatives of the Russian league while overseas last week.

It's better than nothing, I guess, but hopefully we never have to find out what this could be like or how it would work.

The NHLPA is expected to offer its counter proposal to the owners on Tuesday and, of course, there seems to be some optimism from their side that it's a good offer.

Tampa Bay Lightning forward B.J. Crombeen, and one of the players on the NHLPA negotiating committee, told the St. Petersburg Times on Thursday that “Our proposal is a good proposal. With our proposal we feel we'll be closer to getting that agreement done.”

Of course they do. Just as the owners felt their initial proposal was a good one.

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