By CRAIG MUDER
Gannett News Service
PITTSBURGH

The NHL Players' Association offered to slash the salary of Flyers goalie Robert Esche by $186,000 Thursday.

Understandably, Esche wasn't real happy about it. But the Whitesboro, N.Y., native is willing to accept the 24 percent pay cut - which will affect all NHL players - to get the NHL back on ice.

"I'm not a rich person by any stretch of the imagination," Esche said of the NHLPA's proposal Thursday, aimed at ending the three-month NHL lockout. "But for the $186,000 I'd have to give back, I just want to see the sport grow and prosper.

"The players have done every single thing possible to try to get a deal done. If (the owners) say no to this, there will be no season."

Esche was scheduled to make $775,000 this season with the Flyers. But when the league's collective-bargaining agreement with the players ended Sept. 15, the NHL owners locked out the players in an attempt to implement a $31 million salary cap.

To date, 382 games of the season have been lost.

The players have said they won't accept a cap under any circumstances. But Thursday's 236-page proposal includes a 24 percent rollback on all players' salaries along with a luxury tax.

The tax kicks in at 20 cents on the dollar for team payrolls of more than $45 million; 50 cents on the dollar at $50 million; and 60 cents on the dollar at $60 million.

The owners did not respond immediately to the offer, asking for the weekend to examine the numbers. The sides are scheduled to resume talks Tuesday.

"It almost saves the owners a billion dollars over the six years of the contract," said Esche, who stayed Thursday night with former teammate Mark Recchi in Pittsburgh before flying Friday to Phoenix to play in Jeremy Roenick's charity games this weekend.

"It's encouraging to us because (NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman) has not looked at anything else we have given him, so at least they're considering it. But if they say no to this, there will be no season."

Esche, the Flyers' player representative, was not at the bargaining session in Toronto but was briefed in a conference call with NHLPA Executive Director Bob Goodenow. The plan also calls for a revenue sharing plan among the teams.

"This should enthuse any owner of any NHL hockey team," Esche said. "But there's a couple owners there that just dismissed it right away, and all the people at that meeting thought that Gary Bettman wasn't very excited. They want a salary cap so bad, but we won't negotiate that.

"That (24 percent) number isn't sitting well with some of the players," Esche said."A lot of players think - myself included - that we're giving back too much. But we want to get going here. We don't want to be sitting around in January."