The NHL and NHLPA are about $300 million apart

So I sat down to calculate how far apart the owners and players from reaching an agreement and it's not much.  The chart below shows that the two sides are about $327 million apart when comparing two offers tabled.  The owners have offered a 50:50 split over a 6 year contract.  One of the offers tabled by the players is a 5 year contract where the players drop from the current 57% of hockey revenue to 55%, then 53% in year 2, 51% in year 3 and 50% in the final 2 years.

So despite all the rhetoric, the difference is only in the first 3 years of an agreement.  If the average NHL gate is $1.5 million (I'm just guessing) then the difference between the two is the equivalent of 200 league games or about 16% of a season's schedule.  So if the season is shorter than 75 games, then each side stands to lose $150 million based on a 50:50 split.  If the season is shortened to 68 games then each side Will lose as much as they could possible gain in this dispute. 

This suggests that all those games cancelled by the league could likely be restored once the parties settle and that a settlement is likely soon.  In the end the owners are not going to give up revenue for a moral victory.  I think in this standoff the players can actually win.

		Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5	Year 6
Revenue	$   3,300	$   3,330	$   3,570	$   3,827	$   4,102	$   4,398	$   4,714
Players' share (NHL's offer)	$   1,881	$   1,650	$   1,785	$   1,913	$   2,051	$   2,199	$   2,357
Players' share (NHLPA's offer)	$   1,881	$   1,832	$   1,892	$   1,952	$   2,051	$   2,199
Diference		$     182	$     107	$       38	$          -	$          -		$     327
* All figures in $1,000,000