The end to Owners’ Lockout III and the delayed beginning of the 2012-13 NHL season appeared to be within plain sight as productive talks between the league and the NHLPA went into the Manhattan night.
Outstanding issues, most notably the 2013-14 cap, maximum contract length and variance within contracts, remained to be settled Saturday night, but Thursday’s backslide and Friday’s stall were reversed early in the day, largely on the strength of the work of federal mediator Scot L. Beckenbaugh.
If an agreement in principle is reached Sunday, a ratification process could be completed by Wednesday or Thursday. That would allow for training camps to open on Friday and for a season of either 48 or 50 games to commence no later than Jan. 19.
The league yesterday increased its proposed 2013-14 cap number from $60 million to $62.5 million, but the players, who last week reduced their proposed number from $67.5 million to $65 million, did not regard that as enough of a shift.
The 2013-14 cap is not a dollars issue for the players, who will be hit with higher escrow losses to accommodate the difference. Rather, with 11 teams already having at least $60 million in payroll committed for next year, the union wants to minimize the disruption to families of players who would be uprooted through buyouts or trades otherwise unnecessary if not for league-imposed cap duress.
The NHL and union have already agreed to two amnesty buyouts per team that would not be counted against the cap in order to ease the immediate transition to 50-50 and the decrease from this year’s effective $70.2 million ceiling.
Every issue in this negotiation has resulted in either a give-back from, or a hold by, the players’ association. As such, the union did not approach the outstanding matters prepared to simply split the difference between the parties.
And so, there was still work to be done. There was still a chance Canceler-in-Chief Gary Bettman, bound by too many promises to too many owners, would attempt to dig in as the sides engaged in a final ground game.
But far too much had been invested, and far too much ground had been covered over the last 10 days, for common sense not to be able to bridge the final divide.
Thus, as evening turned into night and night into the wee hours of the morning, the end of the lockout was in sight. As such, so too was the beginning of the season.
If Jan. 19 does mark the beginning of the season, the Garden is available for the Rangers, who originally were scheduled to be In Colorado that night. That match will not take place within what will be an entirely in-conference schedule.
But with the Islanders scheduled to be home on Jan. 19 for a match against the Western Conference Blue Jackets, it is conceivable the league could schedule a Rangers-Islanders opener at the Coliseum. The two teams have opened the season against each other only once, n 1997-98 when the clubs played to a 2-2 tie at MSG.
The Devils’ original schedule has the Eastern champions in Florida to face the Panthers on Jan. 19.
larry.brooks@nypost.com