The NHL and its players’ association appeared headed toward a lockout when talks broke off yesterday after the union’s first new proposal in nearly a year. As promised, the NHLPA offered a system that didn’t include the salary-cap structure it said the league is demanding. The proposal was emphatically rejected by owners during a four-hour session in Toronto. That left Ted Saskin, the NHLPA’s senior director, resigned to the fact that a lockout was likely to be imposed by owners when the current collective bargaining agreement expires next Wednesday. “It certainly looks that way,” Saskin said. “By making their one issue the one thing we won’t talk about, it appears clear their intention.”