NHL Lockout: January Thaw

English: NHL Commisioner Gary Bettman in 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It took four months, 113 days and over 500 canceled games, but the National Hockey League and its players association finally came up with a tentative agreement to end the owner-imposed lockout that threatened to cancel an entire season for the second time in a decade.

The agreement, pending approval of both the owners and the NHL Players Association, goes like this:

• A 10-year collective bargaining agreement with a mutual opt-out for both sides after 8 years.
• Player contracts are limited to seven years.  If you're a team that wants to re-sign a player, that'll be eight years.
• The salary cap will be between $60-70 million.
• Revenue sharing will be around $200 million.
• The date of free agency remains July 1, though it will be slightly later this year due to the lockout.
• Participation in the Winter Olympics and realignment isn't part of the agreement, but they will be decided on at a later date.

What people really want to know is when the puck is going to drop.  That hasn't officially been determined, but the most likely scenario is a 48-game schedule (similar to the one that followed the 1994-95 lockout) starting January 19, with teams playing within their own conference.  The Stanley Cup finals won't begin until mid-June.

There are a few questions we have about this long, unnecessary lockout.  The first is why did it take until five days before the drop-dead date to cancel the season to get a deal done?  Will this new agreement mean the end to mega-contracts, such as the ones the Minnesota Wild gave to free agents Ryan Suter and Zach Parise?  Will NHL commissioner Gary Bettman keep his job after presiding over the third lockout of his tenure?  Will NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr keep his?  How long can some of the league's franchises in the South and Southwest expect to survive in the lockout's aftermath?

Most of all, for the fans who have felt abandoned by this and other sports labor disputes in the past, the end of the lockout has generated mixed emotions.  Some of them have vowed to boycott games, while others claim they've found something better to do than watch hockey.  That's a noble sentiment, given that the average fan will not make the kind of money in their lifetimes that pro athletes do in one year.  But that attitude can only last for so long because, once you're tired of "Storage Wars" and "Pawn Stars" reruns, you're gonna hit that remote, find a hockey game and get hooked again.

We are now entering a decade of labor peace in pro sports, which is how long the new CBAs and most TV contracts will last.  Who knows how they will be used and abused before the next round of negotiations begin?