Seriously. Anyone?

Source: ESPN.com


NEW YORK -- The NHL and the players' association reached an agreement in principle on a new labor deal, ending a lockout that wiped out last season, the sides announced in statements Wednesday.

The sides met for 24 hours from Tuesday into Wednesday to hammer out the collective bargaining agreement that will return the NHL to the ice.

Both sides still need to raitfy the deal. That process is expected to be completed next week, the league and the union said in a joint news release.

A prominent player agent told ESPN The Magazine's E.J. Hradek that the draft lottery will be held on July 21, with the entry draft being held in Ottawa on July 30.

"We met all night," NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly said in an e-mail.

It took all night and then some for the final round of negotiations to produce an agreement.

The sides met for 10 straight days in New York, and it became clear Wednesday morning -- the 301st day of the lockout -- that they weren't going to leave the room without an agreement in hand.

The expected salary cap will likely have a ceiling approaching $40 million and a minimum somewhere between $20 million and $25 million.

Player salaries will not exceed 54 percent of league-wide revenues.

Some players in recent days have voiced their displeasure over what will be included in the new deal.

Commissioner Gary Bettman warned in February when he canceled the season that the offers the union passed up were better than any it would see once a year of hockey was lost.

Just days before the NHL became the first North American sports league to wipe out a full season, the players' association said for the first time it would accept a salary cap if the NHL dropped its desire to link player costs to revenues.

Bettman promised ``cost certainty'' in the form of a hard salary cap to the owners and he has gotten it.

The landscape of the NHL will be quite different than it was back in June 2004 when the Tampa Bay Lightning skated off with the Stanley Cup in the league's last game before the lockout.

Now when the league relaunches in the fall, it will do so with a brand new salary structure that keeps high-spending teams such as Toronto, Philadelphia and the New York Rangers in line.

The first order of business after the deal is ratified will be to get a majority of the players signed. The belief is that last season's contracts will be wiped from the books, leaving many players without deals.

Those who are still under contract will have their salaries reduced by 24 percent, a concept first proposed by the union in December.

There will also be several rules changes that could run the gamut from the size of goaltender equipment to the installation of a shootout to eliminate tie games.

A draft will also have to be held soon, replacing the June event that was the last casualty of the lockout.

Canadian phenom Sidney Crosby is the consensus choice to be the No. 1 pick. Where he goes will be determined by a draft lottery that will give each team an opportunity to snag him.

No!

Actually, yeah. I need to see a Thrashers playoff game in Phillips Arena before they fold half the league.

After that, I guess I'll have to go back to being a Flyers fan and you know how I feel about Philly......

yeah, i'm pretty excited. i love hockey. probably my favorite sport

Yeah, I can't wait either. Go Flyers!

The only way this could get better is if Goodenow were killed in a freak Zamboni accident, leaving a streak of frozen blood across center ice.

Ditto That on both accounts....

Excited and can't wait, May and June sucked without the playoffs.

eh, i still care more then pro football and baseball.

Lord Stanley LIVES!

Oh, yeah sure. But, red line or no red line?

No Red Line...I think this alone will open the game up alot...The shoot out is a good idea I never thought I'd see in my lifetime either..Hockey Historians(Old Guys) hate it, but it's pretty exciting...


Can't wait till we get the Obner Fantasy Hockey League going around here.....

nope...never did...

actually, i was hoping it would never come back, so i wouldnt have to waste energy turning the pages in the sports section to get past the hockey news.

Agreed.
Which goon is the new Kasparitis? Someone needs to break Roenick's nose back into place.

<---- is anxiously awaiting the steroid-induced season-record-breaking performances that win back the fans (Sosa/Mac '98 revisited)

You are the enemy.

So do you guys think the break was a blessing in disguise for Todd Bertuzzi? I think the league's issues have overshadowed his little issue.

It can or can't. Case in point German Olympic team. You can still play a very conservative trapping style, even more so than what the NHL has seen in recent years.

Blessing in disguise? He's lost over 5 million dollars in wages (not counting the lockout year) plus he's still not reinstated. This could drag on for long time yet.

I figure as long as he's a Canuck he'll be screwed. And I predict he'll get traded to Anaheim sometime this fall.

I'm very excited. I want to see the Flames repeat the success they had two years ago.

No. He's a piece of shit & everyone outside of Vancouver knows it & will let him know when he's back (hopefully a long long time from now)

I'd almost forgotten what a spiteful little fuck you are.

Truth hurts

Anyone know how long teams will have to get under the cap? If the cap is at 40 mill, I'd bet close to half the league currently exceeds it (USA Today has those numbers, but I'm too lazy to look for a link right now). There should be some pretty interesting player movement at some point.

And I can't remember hearing about revenue sharing. Have they even talked about that?

Let's go Buff-a-lo! (fingers crossed for revenue sharing)