Count former Maple Leafs captain and Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Doug Gilmour among those hoping the upcoming NHL season isn’t disrupted by a labour dispute.
Before he retired in 2003, Gilmour went through a lockout that shortened the 1994-95 season to 48 games, an experience he said was frustrating for everyone involved.
With the threat of a lockout looming again, Gilmour said no one wins when a season is shortened or wiped out by a labour dispute between the league and its players.
With most attention being paid to the players and their salaries and team owners and their earnings, Gilmour sympathized with the people who work behind the scenes in arenas because they may be out of work if games are cancelled and venues aren’t as busy.
“Everybody loses, whether it’s the people who work at the ACC or any other building for that matter,” Gilmour said during an appearance on CP24 Breakfast on Tuesday. “I hope they resolve it and I hope there’s not a lockout because, again, we’re all hockey fans here and we want to see this game keep improving.”
Collective bargaining talks resume in New York on Tuesday, where NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly are set to meet NHL Players’ Association executive director Donald Fehr and top assistant Steve Fehr.
The talks are occurring as a Sept. 15 deadline looms for a lockout.
After the last collective bargaining agreement expired, the players were locked out and the entire 2004-05 season was cancelled. Play resumed the following season after the players and league agreed on the deal that is set to expire next month.
It was the first time a major professional sports league in North America scrapped an entire season because of labour trouble.
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