Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik expressed that the he and the rest of the NHL Players Association were not impressed with the NHL's most recent collective bargaining proposal, which was presented on Tuesday.
The offer included a 50/50 split of hockey related revenue without salary rollbacks on players' contracts and a condensed 82 game schedule. While the initial concept of an 'even' split was favorably received amongst fans, Orpik and the NHLPA hope that they will realize that you can't judge a book by its cover.
It was exposed on Monday by Deadspin that the NHL recently employed Republican strategist Frank Luntz to help the league craft a public relations plan moving forward. In Orpik's mind, the latest proposal was a move by the league to gain some positive press with the fans, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
"I think that might have been the goal of the league - to generate that excitement and make it seem like everything will be done soon. There weren't a lot of details leaked out yesterday. 'Oh, it's a 50-50 split across the board. We know it's important to honor players' contracts.' But they didn't say how those contracts would be honored. I think that's why they generated excitement. People didn't care [about the details]. Everything sounded great."
The NHLPA is expected to provide the league a counterproposal some time this week.