2003

* Jan. 6 – NHL Players’ Association Executive Director Bob Goodenow and Commissioner Gary Bettman quietly begin holding collective bargaining talks pertaining to expiration of current deal.

* Oct. 1 – First meeting made public includes players and owners. Union tables first proposal, which includes 5% salary rollback. League counters by saying that team payrolls under any new system could not exceed $31 million – the NHL’s first official salary-cap threat.

2004

* Feb. 12 – League hired gun Arthur Levitt releases his financial report, which says the NHL is on a “treadmill to obscurity” if player costs aren’t reduced. The report says only 11 of 30 teams were profitable in 2002-03, when total operating losses were $273 million. The union calls the report “flawed.”

* April 29-Sept. 9 – Several meetings yield proposals but no agreements. League first points out desire for a “partnership/cost certain system for player compensation”; union remains averse to salary-cap system.

* Sept. 15 – Bettman announces lockout.

* Oct. 13 – First official day of the NHL’s regular season missed.

* Dec. 9 – Talks resume. Union offer highlighted by 24% salary rollback on all existing player contracts, along with other givebacks in entry-level system, qualifying offers, salary arbitration, and slightly better payroll tax, but no salary cap.

* Dec. 14 – Negotiating teams meet again. The NHL rejects the union’s proposal and offers its own counterproposal, which the union rejects. The league’s offer includes a salary cap, the scrapping of salary arbitration, and the restructuring of the players’ 24% salary rollback.

2005

* Jan. 17 – Players’ representative Trevor Linden invites both sides back to the negotiating table, but with a small group that does not include Bettman or Goodenow.

* Jan. 19-27 – Small-group meetings yield little progress.

* Feb. 2-4 – Marathon round of meetings. NHLPA rejects latest league proposal, which once again features a salary cap.

* Feb. 9 – Bettman offers “compromise” deal, which union quickly rejects. Bettman announces there won’t be hockey unless a deal is put on paper by weekend.

* Feb. 10 – NHL, NHLPA part ways after bleak assessment of latest failed talks.

* Feb. 14 – The NHL schedules a news conference for Feb. 16, during which it plans to cancel the season. Then, what looks like a breakthrough: The league drops its demand for a link between league revenues and player costs, and the players’ association agrees to accept a salary cap during talks in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

* Feb. 15 – The sides trade a flurry of proposals and letters, but never agree on a cap. The owners bump up their offer of a $40 million cap to $42.5 million; the players initially propose a $52 million cap, then counter with $49 million, which the league rejects out-of-hand.

* Feb. 16 – Bettman cancels season.