Talks to resume Wednesday, though not on economics

• "Major economic issues aren't on the agenda," NHL's Bill Daly says
• Sides are stalemated on big issues and trying to negotiate the smaller ones
• Players will miss their first paycheck next week

Negotiations between NHL owners and players will resume in New York on Wednesday and Thursday, but they aren't scheduled, as of now, to include any discussion of the primary issue of how to divide revenues every season.

"Major economic issues aren't on the agenda," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said Monday via email.

With the lockout now starting its fourth week and the first two weeks of the regular season already canceled, the owners and players are stalemated. They are negotiating on some of the secondary issues with the hope that it might open the door to talks on the major issues.

The economic fight is over the owners' desire to reduce the players' share of revenues. When the collective bargaining agreement expired on Sept. 15, the players were receiving 57%. The owners' last offer was a six-year proposal that would reduce players' share immediately to 49% and then down to 47%.

Players have said they are willing to take less, but they want it to come from anticipated revenue growth over the next three seasons. They are trying to maintain their current real dollar take of $1.8 billion.

The NHL had $3.3 billion in hockey-related revenue last season, meaning every percentage point change is worth $33 million, and that doesn't include anticipated growth. A reduction of eight percentage points, from 57% to 49%, would add at least $264 million to the owners' take.

The players won't start to feel a financial loss from the lockout until next week when they would have received their first of 13 paychecks.