NHL considering NHLPA offer, meetings resume in New York on Tuesday

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman will meet the NHLPA to discuss counterproposal submitted by the players' association on Monday. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The NHL and NHLPA met for three hours on Monday, the first time  in more than two weeks that the two sides have had in-person meetings, in order to try to end the ongoing lockout, reports ESPN. The NHLPA submitted a counterproposal to the league Monday, and additional meetings will be held on Tuesday.

"We spent a good part of [Monday] afternoon with the players' association. They were responding to the proposal we made Thursday and their response was a comprehensive one, dealing with a full slate of issues that we raised and proposals that we put forth, and we're in the process of reviewing their response," said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on Monday. "Our expectation is that we'll contact them [Tuesday] morning and arrange to get back together, hopefully, certainly by midday. We're going to try and turn this around overnight so we can continue the process."

Bettman declined to provide any details on the NHLPA offer, beyond calling it "comprehensive."

Games through Jan. 14 have already been cancelled; the NHL's last offer indicated that the season needed to start by Jan. 19, and Bettman reaffirmed this position on Monday:

"What we've said is we need to drop the puck by Jan. 19 if we're going to play a 48-game season," said Bettman. "We don't think it makes sense to play a season that is any shorter than that."