Holy shit, Hockey's back

[Arlos]

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.

The agreement comes after an all-night bargaining session stretched well into Wednesday morning -- the 301st day of the lockout that forced the cancellation of the 2004-05 season.

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

After meeting every day last week, the sides got together Sunday for a 14-hour session that lasted until early Monday morning. Just six hours later, they were back at the table.

Those talks broke up Monday night and set the stage for the latest marathon session that got under way Tuesday -- the ninth straight days of talks.

The sides have met for 10 consecutive weeks in an effort to get an agreement as quickly as possible so next season can begin on time.

The new agreement is expected to contain a salary cap with a ceiling in the upper $30 millions and a minimum in the low-to-mid $20 millions.

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.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

[Lyion]

All that time and the owners got exactly what they wanted.

[Zanchief]

The player backlash against the PA is gonna be crazy.

Let the media frenzy begin! (in canada atleast)

[Arlos]

The player backlash against the PA is gonna be crazy.

Deservedly so. The PA should've taken the last offer by the owners before it was all shut down last season. Owners told them that it was only going to get worse, PA gambled playing hardball, and lost, big time. The PA completely misjudged how committed and unified the owners were on this thing. Enough of the owners were losing enough money, that not playing actually saved them money that there was literally no way they were going to cave.

I bet if the PA had done an actual survey of player sentiments, they'd have found that all but the 10mil a year Jagr types would have been highly in favor of taking the earlier deals. But, they catered to the 8 figure types, who wanted to get even higher 8 figure deals, and be damned what it did to the smaller market clubs and the 2-4mil a year guys.

I expect Goodenow to be out on his ass very very soon, and entirely new PA leadership to get voted in.

-Arlos

[Zanchief]

I expect Goodenow to be out on his ass very very soon, and entirely new PA leadership to get voted in.

It's pretty much unavoidable at this point.

[Phlegm]

While the deal sucked compare to what is offer earlier, the players didnt do to badly. They getting over half the revenue.

The expected salary cap likely will have a ceiling of $37 million to 39.5 million and a minimum of $22 million to 22.4 million.

Player salaries will not exceed 54 percent of league-wide revenues, expected to be around $1.8 billion. Players will also put money into escrow, and after each season that will be used to balance out the set percentage based on actual revenues.

With the salary cap in place, I would imagine there will a lot of high price players being cut by big spenders.

[Phlegm]

Fan favorite Jeremy Roenick doesnt seem to be to pissed off about the new deal:

"To be totally honest, I really don't care what the deal is anymore. All I care about is getting the game back on the ice," Flyers star Jeremy Roenick said in a telephone interview during a celebrity golf event in Nevada.

"I think the deal is not great for the players. It is definitely an owner-friendly deal. For the last 10 years, the players have made a lot of money and now we are in a position where everybody is going to make money," he said. "Unfortunately, it had to take a whole year to get to a point where we could have been last year."

[Tuggan]

if bettman wasnt so busy pushing hockey into non-marketable areas, and the owners hadnt spent the money they didnt have like it was water none of this would have been an issue. places like the carolinas, nashville, atlanta... they dont fucking care about hockey. so the teams with a fan base, and those fans have to suffer because the hurricanes cant compete...fuck bettman.

[Ganzo]

if bettman wasnt so busy pushing hockey into non-marketable areas, and the owners hadnt spent the money they didnt have like it was water none of this would have been an issue. places like the carolinas, nashville, atlanta... they dont fucking care about hockey. so the teams with a fan base, and those fans have to suffer because the hurricanes cant compete...fuck bettman.

Sell Hurricanes to Milwaukee WI, they love hockey there but don't even have a team

[Arlos]

Tuggan: San Jose wouldn't exactly be considered a "prime hockey market" on the outside, would it? Yet the Sharks have done EXTREMELY well here. They have a huge following, and the Tank sells out just about every night, pretty much. So, not all of the expansions have been bad ideas, though I'll agree some have.

-Arlos

[vonkaar]

Crazy free agency starts now...

top 10:
1. Peter Forsberg
2. Markus Naslund
3. Scott Niedermayer
4. Mike Modano
5. Nikolai Khabibulin
6. Adam Foote
7. Sergei Zubov (I'd cry even harder to lose him than Modano... as much as I love Mikey)
8. Pavol Demitra
9. Paul Kariya
10. Alexei Zhitnik

[Zanchief]

The best player in the league is a FA and you don't have him on that list cause he plays for a Canadian team.

[Arlos]

You talking about Iginla? I dunno, if not for Forsberg's health issues, I think I'd rather have him than Jerome, not that Jerome isn't really great, Forsberg has just been great a lot longer. I dunno that I'd put Demitra on that list either, as he has a career-long habit of completely vanishing in the playoffs. That's why he's being run out of St. Louis. Sharks should have room to sign at least a couple high end free agents, even after re-signing their own restricted free agents, wonder if they'll actually do it. Would love to see, say, Kariya paired up with Marleau...

-Arlos

[Tikker]

I don't like Kariya, he plays soft

ps

philadelphia has 13 players signed


they're over the salary cap already

inc cuts!

[Zanchief]

You talking about Iginla?

Yes.

[Phlegm]

Rules changes incoming to NHL?

According to USA Today, some of the proposals include allowing zero tolerance for interference away from the puck; reducing the size of goaltending equipment and limiting how goalies can handle the puck; ejecting players who get an instigator penalty in the game's final five minutes; and giving players who shoot the puck into the stands from the defensive end a two-minute penalty; altering the icing rule; and eliminating tie games by first going to a four-on-four five-minute overtime period, then playing three minutes of three-on-three and finally switching to a three-man shootout if the score is still tied. The memo also suggests two points for a win and no points for an overtime loss, although that is expected to face heavy opposition.

[vonkaar]

What would your top ten be, Zan?

I won't enter into hockey polemics with a Canadian... that's like going in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

[Tikker]

What would your top ten be, Zan?

I won't enter into hockey polemics with a Canadian... that's like going in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

top 10 is going to be somewhat subjective based on the type of team you want to put together


Like Zan tho, I'd rank iginla above forsberg (age, and injuries are against peter)

[Tikker]

1 Jarome Iginla (f) Best player by far available
2 Marc Denis (goalie) Best goalie available, and top10 goalie in the league
3 Pavel Datsyuk (f) Good upside, potentially top10 scorer
4 Ziggy Palffy (f) Possibly the most under rated player in the league
5 Alexie Kovalev (f) When motivated, a top 10 performer
6 Mario Lemiuex (f) If he scored 0 goals, people would come to the rink to see him
7 Marcus Naslund (f) Good scorer, plays soft tho
8 Martin St Luois (f) Small, but effective
9 Martin Havlat (f) Great 2 way player
10 Scott Neidermeier (d) Best defenseman available that isn't 100 years old

[Zanchief]

I'd add Richards and Heatly to that list.

[vonkaar]

seriously... you both leave Mikey off the list?

[Zanchief]

To be honest I haven't followed hockey much lately so don't take my word for it. But I did have Modano in my hockey pool last year when he stunk it up so I'm a little bitter.

[Ironfang]

Top 10 players that are free agents are way different than the top 10 players. If a player is restricted they don't really count as a FA as they almost NEVER leave their existing team without a trade.

Niedermayer is easily the best FA available. Not even close as he is a top 3 NHL defenceman and is healthly. Forsberg, while great, gets hurt a lot and Naslund is a better pickup based on the age/injury/performace scale.

Want to see a team make tons of cuts, look at the Leafs and Rangers. Chop Chop goes the players...

[Tikker]

Modano is great, I watched him in junior hockey for years

He's one of the few players around that always looks like he's going to score a goal

but


He's a 1 way player, and is getting on the old side


And zan, I like richards and heatley, but they don't really fit the mold of the type of player I'D want as a GM

that's just me tho


I'll take a Todd Marchant over 99% of all the other 2nd,3rd and 4th line centres in the game

[Snero]

erm tikker denis 2nd best free agent? thats overselling his worth a ton and havlat a 2 way player? Martin havlat is as close the sens have to a one dimentional offensive player. He has never really been very responsibly in his own end and thats one of the reasons hes never really gotten a ton of playtime and hasn't moved from the 3rd line. That and having other players like hossa and alfredsson ahead of him, but if they really wanted, and if he was solid enough, he could have been moved wings to get more time.

Palffy is what he is, a very talented and very injury prone player who has shown flashes of being a superstar but hasn't been able to carry a team. When he was healthy, jason allison was the man on the kings, not ziggy.