Stars' Andrej Sekera speaks out on negotiations with owners, indicates things aren't going well
NHL players rarely talk openly about negotiations taking place regarding salaries. However, Andrej Sekera of the Dallas Stars has completed an interview with media in his home country of Slovakia, where he said he isn't getting the hold up in starting the 2020-21 season at all.
"In Dallas, we have a man who takes care of all the negotiations and gives us new information to the chat group," Sekera told Sport.sk. At the moment, however, there is silence. It's all about money. The clubs are pushing us to sacrifice an even greater amount of salaries than the agreed twenty percent. The owners are arguing for force majeure." (Force Majeure in a contract allows a party to claim unforeseeable circumstances prevents them from fulfilling that contract)
"At the same time, the calculations for the new collective agreement took playing in empty arenas into account so I do not understand that," said Sekera, referring to why it's taking so long to get an official start date.
Sekera, 34, goes on to say that he'd like to spend Christmas with his family in Slovakia, but he has no idea if that will actually happen. Some players have already returned to their home cities and are going through quarantine before hitting the ice for training.
Sport.sk also talked to Washington Capitals defenceman Martin Fehérváry for the same article.
"It is stretching because they want to take more money from our contracts. We have received word that it could start in mid-January, but everything is being negotiated. If that were the case, I would have to move to America as soon as possible, " said the 21-year-old.
It continues to sound like to two sides are far apart on these issues, which is likely bad news for getting the 2020-21 season started any time soon. We'll have to see who breaks first. It has been reported that some owners are not happy with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman right now as they claim they did not have time to properly pour over the details of the latest CBA before it was signed. You can read more about that here.
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YESTERDAY
JUNE 6, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jordan Staal | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Brayden McNabb | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Taylor Hall | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Martinook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Karlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jaccob Slavin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Logan Stankoven | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||