The NHL has informed its teams that the league plans to cancel all regular season games through Nov. 30 as part of the ongoing collective bargaining negotiations with the NHL Players association, according to Elliotte Friedman of CBC.
The official announcement is expected to come later on Friday afternoon.
This decision is no surprise as the NHL had set a deadline for Thursday, Oct. 25, to have a new CBA agreed upon. In an attempt to accomplish this, the league presented the NHLPA with a new proposal last Tuesday, which included a 50/50 split of hockey related revenue without salary rollbacks. If the players agreed to the proposal by the deadline, the league planned to play a condensed 82-game schedule, which would have begun on Nov. 2.
However, the players association was not pleased with the proposal and countered with three new proposals of their own last Thursday, which the NHL quickly rejected.
As of this time, no future negotiations are scheduled.
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly already stated that the NHL All-Star Game will not be canceled as part of this next block of cuts, according to Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch. However, it is believed that the Winter Classic could be canceled as early as next week.