Hammer
01-06-2013, 06:00 PM
I know we have some serious hockey fans on Intercot-
NEW YORK -- A tentative agreement has been reached between the NHL and the players' association.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr stood side by side in the early hours of Sunday morning to announce there was a framework in place for a new collective bargaining agreement.
Although the deal still requires language clarification, legal fine-tuning and ratification from both sides, a verbal agreement has been reached on the major points.
"We still have a lot of work to do," Bettman said, "but it's good to be at this point."
The deal still requires majority approval from both the board of governors -- likely Wednesday, a source told ESPN -- and the NHLPA membership before it can become official.
The tentative agreement is a 10-year deal with a mutual opt-out clause after eight years and includes contract term limits at seven years (eight years for a team to re-sign its own players), a source confirmed to ESPNNewYork.com.
"I am happy deal has been reached and excited to get back to playing hockey," Penguins star Sidney Crosby said in an email.
For the first year, the salary cap is $60 million but teams can spend up to $70.2 million in the transition period, while the floor is $44 million.
Sources said the 2013-14 salary cap, a very divisive issue, will be $64.3 million, while the floor will remain at $44 million.
Contract salary variance is capped at 35 percent from year to year, with the provision that the last year can't vary more than 50 percent from the highest-salaried year, a source told ESPN.com.
Revenue sharing will spread $200 million, with a $60 million NHLPA-initiated growth fund included.
The NHL had hoped to change the opening of free agency to July 10, but the players stood firm and it will remain July 1, although it will start later this year due to the delayed season. The trade deadline has not been finalized yet, but the league at this point is suggesting April 5, a source told ESPN.
Olympic participation will not be part of this agreement; the two parties will work on a side agreement regarding the Olympics and possibly the World Cup of Hockey.
Veteran forward Shane Doan said the players knew it would be concessionary bargaining from the beginning, but was satisfied with the terms agreed upon.
"You knew you were in that position, and I think as a union we got the best deal we could possibly get, and you're happy," he said. "You're just excited to play hockey again and do what you really enjoy and have a passion for."
Word of the agreement came after the two sides hashed out their remaining differences for more than 16 hours at a hotel in midtown Manhattan. It was the lengthiest negotiating session and latest night of a lockout that has lasted 113 days -- almost four months.
George H. Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, issued a statement congratulating the NHL and NHLPA.
"The negotiated agreement represents the successful culmination of a long and difficult road in which the parties ultimately were able to reach mutually acceptable solutions to a wide variety of contentious subjects of bargaining," he said.
Bettman did not have details on a timeline for ratification or a potential schedule for the opening of the regular season. It is believed the sides are aiming for either a 48- or 50-game season depending on how quickly things get done. Sources told ESPN.com that a 50-game season would start Jan. 15, while a 48-game season would start Jan. 19.
Fehr said he hoped the next steps could be accomplished "fairly rapidly" and with "dispatch."
"We'll get back to what we used to call business as usual just as fast as we can," he said.
Both sides are committed to playing as many games as possible, even if it requires starting the season midweek, multiple sources told ESPN.com.
The 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs are expected to stretch into the end of June to account for the delayed start and compressed season.
NEW YORK -- A tentative agreement has been reached between the NHL and the players' association.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr stood side by side in the early hours of Sunday morning to announce there was a framework in place for a new collective bargaining agreement.
Although the deal still requires language clarification, legal fine-tuning and ratification from both sides, a verbal agreement has been reached on the major points.
"We still have a lot of work to do," Bettman said, "but it's good to be at this point."
The deal still requires majority approval from both the board of governors -- likely Wednesday, a source told ESPN -- and the NHLPA membership before it can become official.
The tentative agreement is a 10-year deal with a mutual opt-out clause after eight years and includes contract term limits at seven years (eight years for a team to re-sign its own players), a source confirmed to ESPNNewYork.com.
"I am happy deal has been reached and excited to get back to playing hockey," Penguins star Sidney Crosby said in an email.
For the first year, the salary cap is $60 million but teams can spend up to $70.2 million in the transition period, while the floor is $44 million.
Sources said the 2013-14 salary cap, a very divisive issue, will be $64.3 million, while the floor will remain at $44 million.
Contract salary variance is capped at 35 percent from year to year, with the provision that the last year can't vary more than 50 percent from the highest-salaried year, a source told ESPN.com.
Revenue sharing will spread $200 million, with a $60 million NHLPA-initiated growth fund included.
The NHL had hoped to change the opening of free agency to July 10, but the players stood firm and it will remain July 1, although it will start later this year due to the delayed season. The trade deadline has not been finalized yet, but the league at this point is suggesting April 5, a source told ESPN.
Olympic participation will not be part of this agreement; the two parties will work on a side agreement regarding the Olympics and possibly the World Cup of Hockey.
Veteran forward Shane Doan said the players knew it would be concessionary bargaining from the beginning, but was satisfied with the terms agreed upon.
"You knew you were in that position, and I think as a union we got the best deal we could possibly get, and you're happy," he said. "You're just excited to play hockey again and do what you really enjoy and have a passion for."
Word of the agreement came after the two sides hashed out their remaining differences for more than 16 hours at a hotel in midtown Manhattan. It was the lengthiest negotiating session and latest night of a lockout that has lasted 113 days -- almost four months.
George H. Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, issued a statement congratulating the NHL and NHLPA.
"The negotiated agreement represents the successful culmination of a long and difficult road in which the parties ultimately were able to reach mutually acceptable solutions to a wide variety of contentious subjects of bargaining," he said.
Bettman did not have details on a timeline for ratification or a potential schedule for the opening of the regular season. It is believed the sides are aiming for either a 48- or 50-game season depending on how quickly things get done. Sources told ESPN.com that a 50-game season would start Jan. 15, while a 48-game season would start Jan. 19.
Fehr said he hoped the next steps could be accomplished "fairly rapidly" and with "dispatch."
"We'll get back to what we used to call business as usual just as fast as we can," he said.
Both sides are committed to playing as many games as possible, even if it requires starting the season midweek, multiple sources told ESPN.com.
The 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs are expected to stretch into the end of June to account for the delayed start and compressed season.