You've seen* the rhetoric from the NHL claiming the NHLPA's latest three counteroffers "didn't even begin" to approach 50/50.
*Or maybe you didn't, because you've mercifully ignored all this nonsense.
Now you can see the NHLPA's version of events, thanks to Donald Fehr's letter to the membership, which was conveniently shared with ESPN's Pierre LeBrun (in html-friendly format!). It has the full breakdown of numbers, if you care to review the three proposals.
Fehr closes with a summation, and a naturally down note:
Our hope was that the owners would find one of these three approaches worthy of serious discussion, but the owners rejected these ideas in less than 15 minutes, and further advised the players that their last offer was, in essence, a take it or leave it offer, subject to "tweaks only".
That proposal contains, as you know, an immediate reduction in the share to 50%, a 2012-13 cap with a 51.9M mid-point, and, among other things, player contracting provisions including a change in the ELS, a reduction in salary arbitration eligibility, no UFA status until after 8 years or at age 28, no contract longer than 5 years, no contract may have a year to year variability of greater than 5%, and all money paid under NHL contracts to players playing in the minors or in Europe counts against the team cap (except for the first $105,000 per player).
[...]
At the end of yesterday’s meeting, Gary did say that the players were prepared to agree to all of the other parts of their offer (subject, perhaps, to "tweaks") then I could call him about this issue.
So yeah. Don't expect the owners to compromise on anything that exists in the just-expired CBA, save for some modest improvements to the revenue sharing system (that, in truth, would help the New York Islanders).