BOSTON (AP) – A 36-member panel of top executives, players and other experienced hockey personnel has proposed allowing no more than one player per team to earn more than $5 million a year as part of a plan to end the NHL labor lockout.

The informal group was assembled by The Eagle-Tribune newspaper of Lowell, Mass., which published details of the proposal on Tuesday as part of a series it published looking at the lockout. It forwarded what it called the “initiative” to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHL Players’ Association executive director Bob Goodenow.

“It’s not something we would publicly comment on,” NHLPA spokesman Jonathan Weatherdon said. He was aware of the story but said the union had not received a copy of the proposal Wednesday.

A telephone message left with the league was not immediately returned.

The NHL is sticking to its proposal for a salary cap and has rejected the union’s offer to reduce each player’s salary by 24 percent. The league board of governors is scheduled to meet Jan. 14.

The newspaper said the initiative “would bring a measure of cost certainty but preserve the market.” It did not identify the members of the group.

Currently, the NHL does not have a salary cap in place.

One key element of the plan is a “tier system” which would allow teams to sign players in six categories – one “franchise player” per team with no limit on his salary, and 27 players in five categories with different pay scales. No more than four players per team could earn $5 million a year and a maximum of seven could earn up to $3 million, the newspaper reported.

The panel was part of a five-month study that resulted in the newspaper’s three-part special report on the lockout.

The group included hockey executives with at least 10 years of experience in the business, players, former players, union officials, veteran sports agents, coachers, lawyers and longtime media analysts.

The panel also proposed a minimum player salary of $400,000, contracts lasting a maximum of two years based on performance, elimination of the salary arbitration system for players, unrestricted free agency for players at age 28 – three years earlier than under the most recent collective bargaining agreement – or after playing 500 games.

Other items in the plan include a revenue sharing fund among owners based on team player salaries, payroll taxes that include forfeiting high draft choices for excessive spending, an improved pension program, a contract lasting five years, formation of a competition review committee to increase the game’s appeal to fans and creation of a “partnership alliance” among owners and players to develop a standard way of determining hockey-related revenues shared by the two sides.