After an ugly four months for the NHL, the end of the lockout Sunday seemed to finally signal the end of waiting for hockey fans.  However on Thursday, there have still been relatively few questions answered as the ratification process and drafting of the ‘Memo of Understanding’ (a condensed legal version of the CBA) has dragged on through the entire week, as well as haggling over dates such as the trade deadline.  Even after the NHL Board of Governors unanimously approved the CBA yesterday in NYC, commissioner Gary Bettman could offer few answers both as to the contents of the agreement itself – or more to the point for hockey teams and fans – an answer to what the 48-game schedule will look like.  Information has come at a slow trickle this week, but after the NHLPA officially finishes its ratification vote on Saturday afternoon then business can finally begin in earnest, and not a moment too soon since the season is scheduled to begin next Saturday on the 19th.

One thing we do know officially now – besides the incompetence of the Leafs as evidenced by the shock last-minute firing of Brian Burke in Toronto yesterday, as chronicled by Derek – is that it will be a 48-game season, with a schedule format as follows:

18 division games (5 against two teams, 4 against the other two)
30 conference games (3 against the other 10 conference foes)

Obviously there will be no games with the other conference for this season.  Conflicting reports have either 26 or 28 teams of the 30 teams opening the schedule of games next Saturday.  Although nothing can be announced formally for another couple of days, rumor has it that among the matchups are three Original Six clashes (NYR-Boston, Toronto-Montreal and Chicago-Detroit) as well as three all-Canada clashes (Winnipeg-Ottawa and Edmonton-Calgary to go along with the Leafs and Habs) as HNIC will surely kick off in grand style.  All I know about the Devils’ schedule is they can’t have a home game till the 22nd at the earliest because of Disney on Ice being booked from the 19th-21st.  So Devil fans at least will have to wait a little longer to see their team back at the Rock.

Camps will open on Sunday, after the PA ratifies the CBA, which probably gives Ilya Kovalchuk enough time to play in the KHL All-Star game before coming back, assuming he does come back.  I can understand why he’d want to pander to his Russian audience by offering up mixed messages over whether he’s coming back or wants to come back to the Devils after the official conclusion of the lockout.  To a degree, it’s commendable that he didn’t run out on his teammates until he ‘had’ to but that said, he’d better be on the first plane out of there once the CBA gets ratified late Saturday (which will be early Sunday in Russia).  Especially if he’s going to be the next captain of the Devils, in addition to its highest-paid and best player.

I don’t want to hear any vacilation after this weekend, particularly after everything the Devils went through to sign Kovy to the kind of contract he wanted and after a lockout which annoyed fans with both sides – players and owners alike.  Even if the rumors are true that Vladimir Putin is offering $30 million a season to retain Kovy – and other Russian stars.  You signed a contract for fifteen years, which the team paid for dearly with penalties.  Deal with it.  If you want to cry about how the NHL isn’t honoring its end of the contract, well every standard player contract contains the provision that a new CBA may affect changes in this deal so there’s no leg legally to stand on.

Anyway, enough about that, which hopefully we won’t have to hear any more about after Sunday.  As far as CBA info goes, some of the new info that has come out was documented by Pierre LeBrun the other day:

http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/id/21219/trades-cheat-deals-and-more-cba-details

Among the changes are the ability to retain up to half a salary and/or cap hit in a trade, a change ironically championed by Burke, the recently deposed GM of the Leafs.  You can only do this a limited number of times, and with a certain amount of cap space though.  Also changing the cap is the new ‘cap recapture’ formula, which penalizes teams a certain amount of cap space when players on backdiving contracts – like Kovy, Roberto Luongo, etc – retire early while still under contract.  Essentially you would get penalized the difference between the player’s cap hit and their actual salary in those years, divided out by the number of years left on the contract.  There are provisions for teams trading for such players being charged with part of the cap hit too.

While I understand the need for such changes, it’s getting like the NFL where you need a law degree to fully understand the cap.  Not to mention it adds yet ‘another’ penalty for the Devils on their Kovy contract, in addition to the two high picks and $3 million fine they’ve already had to cough up.  At least this finally gives other teams some punishment for their similar cap-busting deals though.

Everyone knows about the more obvious changes already, such as the seven-year term limit on contracts (eight years if you’re re-signing your own player) and salary variance which should prevent future backdiving deals given the fact the lowest yearly salary can’t be under fifty percent of the highest yearly salary in a contract, despite the 35% year-to-year variance that is allowed.  Each team can have up to two total penalty-free contract buyouts in the next two offseasons, which means you can use two buyouts in 2013-14, or 2014-15, or one buyout in ’13-14 and one in ’14-15.

Although free agency – along with other things – will be pushed back this offseason, it will be July 1 every other offseason of the ten-year deal, assuming neither side exercises its opt-out option after the eighth year (the owners can terminate the CBA on 9/1/2020…if they don’t, the PA can do so on 9/15/2020).  Similar to the NBA there will now be an ‘interview’ period for free agents, meaning they can talk to other teams from the time the draft ends till the night before free agency officially begins.  Presumably that means they can also come to an agreement with other teams, which won’t be official until July 1.  Also taking their cue from the NBA, the NHL has expanded its draft lottery to give every non-playoff team a chance at the top pick, instead of just the five worst teams.

However, we have to wait a couple more days to learn other details such as the schedule, and what the NHL and individual teams decide to do to try and win back fans disillusioned by a third lengthy lockout inside of two decades.  During the reading of his statement after ratification yesterday, Bettman alluded to the fact that, ‘I read the blogs, the tweets, the letters (of people angry over the lockout), and we know we have a lot of work to do to earn back your trust’.  However sincere you want to say Bettman’s apology was, that little acknowledgement is a reminder of how small the world has become thanks to the Internet and Twitter, even more so than in 2004-05.

As I and others have said, a good start by the NHL would be making Gamecenter (their internet service where you can watch the games) free for the season.  Having Center Ice free on TV’s is tougher cause you have to go through the cable companies for that, whereas the NHL runs the internet stream – but you could still heavily discount CI as well.  Not to mention easier access to games will help bring back some of the casual fans you lost during this mess of a work stoppage.  I don’t really plan to shop there but a heavy discount at the NHL store – online and the one in NYC – would be nice for some.

On a team level, already the Tampa Bay Lightning have announced a promotion of ‘200 for $200’, a reference to the fact they plan to make 200 season tickets available for a total cost of $200 each – approximately $8 per game for 24 home games.  And the Penguins plan to have a 50% discount on merchandise for the first four home games at the Consol Energy Center, as well as vouchers for three free concession (food/drink) items to fans attending any of those games.  No doubt other teams are waiting for the official schedule release to unveil some of their plans, making this extra wait more annoying.

UPDATE: And just as I’m finishing this blog, word’s come out that the PA vote will begin at 8 PM tonight and last for 36 hours, finishing at 8 AM on Saturday morning.  So hopefully by the afternoon we can have some clarity over the schedule at last, and begin everything in earnest.  I’m sure it won’t be a moment too soon for the remaining UFA’s and RFA’s that still have to ink contracts with only a week to do it in.

UPDATE (part two): According to Tom Gulutti, the Devils will play the Isles on Long Island on the 19th, for each team’s opener.  We’ll see if that’s what the opener winds up being, but with the other games that have already been rumored this pairing seemed likely.