NHL, players reach agreement on new CBA; season starts by Jan. 19

The NHL lockout is over.
After 113 days of frustration and anger within the league and by its fans, the NHL ended a 16-hour negotiation session around 4 a.m. Sunday morning with a new collective bargaining agreement.
“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 in the wee hours of Sunday morning. “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.”
The NHL’s Board of Governors, as well as the members of the Players Association, are expected to ratify the agreement this week.
Once both sides ratify, and how quickly they do, a 48- or 50-game regular season schedule will be announced – games only within the conference- starting either Jan. 15 (for a 50-game) or Jan. 19 (48-game).
Training camps will start later this week.
Said NHL Players Association executive director Donald Fehr: “Hopefully within a very few days the fans can get back to watching people who are skating, not the two of us.”
Hockey fans can breathe a sigh of relief that new CBA is for 10 years with an opt-out clause for either side after eight years.
The salary cap for the 2013-14 season, just an important issue down to the wire, will be $64.3 million with a floor of $44 million.
Salary variance from year to year will not vary more than 35 percent, with the final year not varying more than 50 percent of the highest year.
Maximum player length will be seven years (eight years for an unrestricted free agent re-signing with his old team).
Also, unrestricted free agency will continue to remain July 1 (however that is likely to change this summer because of the later starting date to the season).
TSN is also reporting NHL participation in the 2014 Olympics will be made at a future date.