Will we have a season? Bill Daly says ‘yes’ on Hockey Night in Canada radio

With the NHL and NHLPA doing very little in the way of talking right now, Bill Daly had a little time to join Gord Stellick and Elliotte Friedman for a segment on Hockey Night in Canada radio Wednesday. It was about a 10-minute hit, with Daly touching on the ongoing negotiations, a potential drop-dead date in January, mediation, and "further cancellations coming this week".

But everything discussed was overshadowed by one word Daly said towards the end:

"Yes."

This was in response to the following question, posed to Daly by Friedman: "Bill, 'I hope so' is not allowed to be an answer to this question or 'I want to believe so' is not an answer to this question. Yes or no: do we have a season?"

Daly was smart enough to give the answer we wanted to hear. "That yes is something we can look forward to," says Stellick.

Of course, this is why I wouldn't get my hopes up about it. The parties involved in these negotiations have been known to employ the "Deceive, Inveigle, Obfuscate" approach to public relations used by the villains of the X-Files. They're not always being up-front with us. Friedman gave Daly a yes or no question where "no" would have been a crushing blow to the hopes of hockey fans everywhere.

No way Daly's going to be that guy when the league spends so much of its time trying to paint Fehr as that guy. So he chuckled and said yes.

And finally, to have a season, an end to negotiations are necessary. Right now, Daly doesn't even see a reason to start them up again. From the same interview:

"Where we are, somebody has to have a new idea or something new to put on the table to move the process along. We're in a postion right now where we felt we made some more substantial movement in the players' direction two weeks ago in New York and I think our view is we've done as much as we can do, and if you have a different idea or a different trade, even on some of the issues we talked about two weeks ago, let's hear it.

But nevermind that. Daly just said we'll have a season! This is the most exciting "yes" since I asked whatsherface to marry me!

Follow Harrison Mooney on Twitter at @HarrisonMooney