A year ago this week, the Tampa Bay Lightning were celebrating their Stanley Cup victory, a bizarre scenario that struck many Northern hockey fans as a sign of the apocalypse. The last 12 months have indeed been apocalyptic for the NHL, but it finally appears as if the league and its players are making progress toward resolving the lockout that wiped out the entire 2004-05 season.

Some crucial details must still be agreed upon, but the core issue – the implementation of a salary cap – has reportedly been settled. According to Toronto’s Globe and Mail, the deal will be six years in length, and there will be a team-by-team salary cap and salary floor based upon a percentage of each team’s revenue. The cap in 2005-06 would range from $34-$36 million, while the floor would range from $22-$24 million.

There reportedly will also be a dollar-for-dollar luxury tax that will be levied when a team’s payroll exceeds the midway point between the cap and the floor (in the case of the current numbers, the tax would kick in when a team’s salary exceeds $29 million). Equally critical, the numbers discussed also include signing and performance bonuses as well as benefits, which means that the actual salary cap probably falls closer to $31 million. It is also believed that existing contracts will be reduced across the board by 24%.

That the two sides have agreed to the details of a salary cap does not necessarily mean that a new collective bargaining agreement is imminent. They are still negotiating the specifics of a revenue-sharing program, and they have not yet determined the best way to help big-spending teams like the Red Wings and Avalanche lower their payrolls to the newly prescribed levels. Salary arbitration will likely be two-way – meaning both teams and players will have arbitration rights – but the terms have yet to be settled.

Finally, the two sides will need to decide whether or not NHL players will be allowed to participate in the 2006 Turin Olympics. The players want to go, while the owners are loathe to interrupt the season for what would be at least two weeks. While it could be argued that Olympic participation would help the NHL reclaim its place amongst the four major sports, a strong counter-argument would be that the high level of play during the Olympics (when a few super-teams dominate the headlines) would only serve to devalue the NHL product.

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RULE CHANGES TO SUIT A NEW NHL

As player contracts will look different in the new NHL, so too will the sport itself. Numerous rule changes were explored during a three-day research camp the NHL conducted this week in an attempt to spark more offense and excitement. Changes such as the implementation of a shootout to decide tie games appear to be foregone conclusions, while other changes – oversized, bubble-shaped nets, for example – remain experimental at best.

As Team USA recently discovered, a shootout is an abominable way to lose an elimination game, but for regular season games, it’s a rule whose time has come. The shootout experiment in the American Hockey League this season was an unqualified success. Twenty-five percent of AHL games ended in a tie in 2003-04, while only half that many went to the shootout in 2004-05. The reason: Coaches were finally given a meaningful incentive to coach to win, as playing for the tie was no longer an option.

This season, the AHL also reintroduced tag-up offsides, which improved the game’s flow without any decline in the quality of play. That rule is expected to be re-implemented when the NHL resumes play. A reduction in the size of goaltending equipment should also be quite helpful, as goalies will be forced to rely more on their reflexes and positioning than on the width and length of their pads. The players union, however, has objected to the NHL’s initiatives with regard to goalie pads, which could generate some 11th-hour tension during the CBA negotiations.

Perhaps most importantly, the NHL has resolved to meaningfully crack down on obstruction. We’ve heard this many times before, but perhaps this time it will really happen. In the short term, the result will be a veritable parade to the penalty box – that was certainly the case during experimental scrimmages this week – and it’s only once player behavior has been permanently altered that clutching and grabbing will really be eradicated. In other words, it could take years, but perhaps the lockout and its aftermath will be enough to convince the NHL that such measures are truly necessary.

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A BRIGHT FUTURE FOR FLYERS

Philadelphia’s championship drought is well known throughout professional sports, but the playoff heroics of the Philadelphia Phantoms have passed under the radar so far. The Flyers’ AHL affiliate will attempt to sweep the Chicago Wolves in the Calder Cup Finals tonight, serving notice that the ever-wily Bobby Clarke has kept his organization’s prospect cupboard well stocked. Young players such as goaltender Antero Niittymaki, defenseman Joni Pitkanen, and forwards Jeff Carter and Mike Richards are getting valuable experience this spring, and no matter the terms of the new CBA, Philadelphia should remain an NHL powerhouse for quite some time.