Well after 113 days Lord Stanley said, “Let there be hockey. And it was good.”. Finally, we have a deal NHL fans……FINALLY.
It looks like Philadelphia Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov knew what he was talking about when he came back from Russia saying the lockout was ending soon. Donald Fehr and Gary Bettman addressed the media early this morning. This tentative agreement is of course waiting on the players to sign off as well as the Board of Governors. The deal will be a 10-year agreement, with an opt-out after eight.
“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 said. “We have to dot a lot of I’s and cross a lot of T’s.”
Many rumors are floating around and that is all that we can report them as of now. I know many media members are confirming information, but until the league confirms it regard these as rumors
– According to both Amy Fadool and Tim Panaccio teams will have a two-compliance buyouts. This will allows teams to shed excess cap especially next year when the cap is expected to drop.
– Per Darren Dreger camps will open anywhere between Wednesday and Friday depending when the deal is ratified. Draft lottery will include all 14 teams and the weighting system may remain. Discipline will run through Brendan Shanahan first, Bettman second, and for suspensions of six or more games a neutral third party will be involved. Revenue sharing will spread $200 million and $60 million NHLPA initiated growth fund also included.
– Pierre LeBrun stated if we have a 50-game season it would start January 15 and a 48-game season would start on the 19th.
Stay tuned to The Inscriber for more developing news on the end NHL lockout.
John Machurek is the NHL Editor-in-Chief for The Inscriber
Follow John on Twitter @JohnnyMacNHL