Adrian Wyld, Associated Press NHLPA association executive president Trevor Linden listens as NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow makes a statement about the NHL offer yesterday in Toronto. Click photo for larger image.

TORONTO -- It's no secret that the NHL Players Association has no interest in a one-size-fits-all salary cap.

Turns out the union doesn't care much for a setup with a little elastic in it, either.

The NHL, which insists that "cost-certainty" be the foundation of its next collective bargaining agreement, yesterday served up a CBA proposal that initially would place team payrolls in a range from $34.6 million-$38.6 million.

The NHLPA rejected it almost immediately.

Afterward, the only thing the parties agreed on is that no additional negotiations are planned. Or needed.

Under the NHL's offer, players would receive 54 percent of the league's "hockey-related revenues." Individual clubs would be permitted to spend as little as 51 percent or as much as 57 percent of their 1/30th share of those funds.

While teams would have had a bit of latitude in tailoring payrolls, the league's offer would have established a firm link between revenues and salaries, the core issue for the NHL.

"The issue of knowing what your costs will be is not something you can compromise," commissioner Gary Bettman said. "You either know your costs, or you don't."

The NHL formally rejected the proposal offered last week by the union during a meeting at the Air Canada Centre yesterday, then submitted an offer that called for:

* Reconfiguring the 24 percent, across-the-board salary rollback the NHLPA offered. The league proposed a six-tiered structure under which players earning less than $800,000 would keep all their salaries, while those making $5 million or more would give back 35 percent.

* Elimination of salary arbitration, which Bettman called "extremely inflationary." The union's offer would have given teams a chance to take some restricted free agents to arbitration.

* Acceptance of the NHLPA's proposal of an $850,000 ceiling on entry-level salaries, but sought the elimination of all bonuses and added a mandatory fourth year on those contracts.

* Raising the NHL's minimum salary from $185,000 to $300,000. The union proposed a hike to $250,000.

* Lowering age for unrestricted free agency from 31 to 30 and setting an unspecified rate below 100 percent for qualifying offers to restricted free agents.

Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHLPA, was predictably unhappy about the league's rejection of the union's offer. And he wasn't particularly pleased with the one Bettman put forth.

"The league took what they liked from our proposal, made major changes and slapped a salary cap on top of it," he said.

Bettman, meanwhile, said the union's framework "simply modifies the current system, which we have stated many times needs a radical restructuring."

A key component in the union's offer was a multi-level "luxury tax" on payrolls exceeding $45 million. The league views those with the same disdain the NHLPA has for salary caps.

"We have no interest in a luxury tax," Bettman said. "At any level, and at any threshold." He added that, "quite frankly, any system that contemplates $45 million, $50 million or $60 million payrolls is not a system that has any interest for us."

The NHLPA has long viewed financial data put forth by the league with great suspicion, and Goodenow openly was skeptical of the figures that shaped the league's latest proposal.

"Their projections, I would suggest to you, are wildly unreliable, using an assortment of mostly made-up numbers and a variety of different time periods," he said. "I can tell you that these projections are completely useless and phony."

As far apart as the parties appear to be, their positions are fairly close in at least one regard. The NHLPA's most recent proposal would have given the players 56.6 percent of the league's revenues, just 2.6 more than the NHL's offer.

No one, however, believes that will lead to a settlement, which Bettman contends is evidence that the NHLPA feels salaries would escalate quickly under its proposal.

"With such a modest gap to bridge, it must be because the union does not believe its proposed system will actually reduce costs to the 56.6 percent level, and keep them there," he said.

In any case, Bettman said, the league's long-term viability hinges on getting a deal that eliminates fiscal inequities and uncertainty.

"We staggered to make it to the end of the collective bargaining agreement that just expired," he said. "And, if we don't fix our problems the right way -- get it right, make sure we can move forward -- then we will be in far worse shape than anything else that can possibly happen."

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NOTES -- Seven Penguins prospects have been named to preliminary rosters for the world junior championships in Minnesota and North Dakota later this month. They are forwards Ryan Stone and Stephen Dixon (Canada), Evgeni Malkin (Russia) and Johannes Salmonsson (Sweden) and defensemen Alex Goligoski (United States), Lukas Bolf (Czech Republic) and Michal Sersen (Slovakia). Team USA is the only one that has finalized its lineup.