The NHL Is BACK!

[leviramsey]

Let's play hockey!

It took millions of dollars in lost revenue and paychecks, but early this morning in New York the NHL and NHLPA struck a tentative deal to end the league’s lockout that had been in place since Sept. 15.

“Don Fehr and I are here to tell you that we have reached an agreement on the framework of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the details of which need to be put to paper,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters after a marathon bargaining session.

“We have to dot a lot of I’s and cross a lot of T’s. There is still a lot of work to be done, but the basic framework has been agreed upon. We have to go through a ratification process and the Board of Governors has to approve it from the league side and, obviously, the players have to approve it as well.

“We are not in a position to give you information right now about schedule, when we are starting. It’s early in the morning and we have been at this all day and all night, obviously. But, we will be back to you very shortly, hopefully, later today with more information in that regard.

“I would be remiss if we didn’t think thank Scot Beckenbaugh, the deputy director of the FMCS (Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service) in the United States, for his assistance in the mediation process, and I want to thank [NHLPA executive director] Don Fehr, because he and the players’ association, as well as the people that work with me at the league went through a long, tough period, and we still have more work to do, but it’s good to be at this point.”

Added Fehr while standing beside Bettman: “Hopefully within a very few days, the fans can get back to watching people who are skating, not the two of us.”

Details

The NHL and NHLPA agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement on Sunday morning after a 16-hour marathon negotiating session.

The tentative deal ends the 113-day lockout and will finally allow fans to get back to enjoying hockey (us too.)

But before we do that, a look at the new CBA — which, it should be noted, is 10 years in length with an opt-out clause for each side that kicks in after the eighth year:

Salary Cap

The 2012-13 season will be a transition year — the upper level is set at $60 million with teams allowed to spend up to $70.2 million. In year two, the cap will move to $64.3 million (the NHL met the NHLPA’s request on that figure, as the league wanted it at $60 million.)

Should be noted the salary floor for both 2012-13 and 2013-14 is $44 million.

Contract Length/Variance

Term limit is set at seven years, eight if a player is resigning with his own team. Maximum salary variance is 35 percent and the final year cannot vary more than 50 per cent from the highest year.

Draft Lottery

All 14 non-playoff teams will get a shot a the first overall selection. Under the NHL’s previous format, only the bottom four teams (26th through 30th place) were eligible to receive the No. 1 pick, and teams were only able move up a maximum of four spots and down a maximum of one spot.

The new format is in line with the NBA Draft Lottery, which can lead to some wild results, like in 1993 — that year, the Orlando Magic won the No. 1 pick in the draft despite finishing the 1992 season with a 41-41 record and holding just a 1.52 percent chance of winning the lottery.

Supplemental Discipline

Decisions will still be handled by Brendan Shanahan, but there’s a new wrinkle to the appeal process. Appeals will first go through NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and, for suspensions of six games or more, a neutral third party will get involved.

Miscellaneous

– The start of free agency will remain on July 1. The NHL had hoped to push it to July 10, but capitulated to the players’ desire to keep it at the start of the month.

– Revenue sharing among clubs will increase to $200 million. There’s also a NHLPA-initiated growth fund of $60 million.

– Olympic participation will be dealt with outside of the new agreement, and a joint league-player committee (possibly the NHL-NHLPA International Committee) will likely handle the decision-making.

– Teams will reportedly receive two amnesty-style buyouts that can be used over the next two offseasons.

– Minimum player salaries will begin at 2011-12′s rate of $525K. The Canadian Press’ Chris Johnston reports that they’ll top off at $750K in the seasons nine and 10 (a bit less than the NHLPA’s demands).

We’ll have more details regarding the new CBA as they become available.

Games could start as early as the 15th or 19th!

[AVFCforever1991]

Finally!

[norton65ca]

After all that, the rampant greed and lack of concern for anything but their deep pockets being filled, I am DONE. I will not give a single ratings dime by watching, NHL hockey for me is over, sick to death of the whole miserable show. Will watch minor league and local hockey instead. The whole affair was unseemly and exposed both the players and the league for what they are. Ticket prices no doubt will rise even higher than the stratospheric levels they are at now. sick.

[kurtsimonw]

Really looking forward to the Rangers being back. Last season was a bit heartbreaking, but we've kept all our key peices. Chris Kreider made his debut in the playoffs and looked great, so be good to see him in his first season. Oh, and that guy called Rick Nash is now in blue.

[maqroll]

There's a Twitter thing going around...#nhlboo or something like that...the gist of it is that fans at every opening game boo the players each time they take the ice...somewhat misguided, as they didn't go on strike, they were locked out. I wish fans would just not go to the opening games, it would be a much better protest. Of course it'll never happen though.

So they're gonna play half a season. I can't say I'm too excited. If the Bruins win the Cup, it will always have a * next to it.

**** the NHL

[leviramsey]

Why should it have a *?

If anything it'll be harder to go through the playoffs this year, because teams should be healthier.

[kurtsimonw]

I love Rick Nash.