There werent any Boston Bruins among the original group of players in Chicago a month ago to kick off the players union press conference with NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr.
But Bruins center and Selke Trophy winner Patrice Bergeron was one of 15 NHL players that sat in on the CBA negotiating sessions at the NHL offices in New York City on Wednesday afternoon.
Manny Malhotra, Antoine Vermette, Daniel Winnik, Henrik Lundqvist and Brandon Dubinsky were among the assorted 15 NHL players attending the bargaining session inside the leagues Sixth Avenue office building.
The negotiations session allowed the players and union officials to pore over the much-discussed NHL proposal from the end of last week, but Fehr told reporters that the union wasnt ready to submit a counter-proposal quite yet.
Were not to that stage yet, said Fehr. We will make our own proposalswhether its a counterproposal to something they said or something of our ownwhen were ready, after we have fully digested what theyve done, are sure we understand it, have had all the discussions with them we need to have and have had all the internal discussions we need to have.
Daniel Paille, the Bruins player rep for the NHLPA, and Bs defenseman Andrew Ference were both in attendance in Chicago for a portion of the union meetings last month.
But they left before Fehr made his final remarks at the end of three days of sessions, and Paille was in Boston this week attending to some charitable commitments as a representative of the Bruins. Paille visited the Franciscan Hospital for Children on Thursday with his wife, Dana, as part of the fourth-liners charitable activities in the city of Boston.
Boston Bruins
So Bergeron traveled to New York City this week after expressing his interest in getting involved in the negotiations last month in for the NHL Awards.