The National Hockey League has long been dismissed as a second-rate league suffering from a striking lack of vision and foresight, especially in comparison to the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and Major League Baseball. After all, NHL franchises are worth significantly less money than franchises in those other leagues, the league’s owners shut down the industry in 2004-05, the TV ratings are scant, and even most prominent college sports teams sell more merchandise.

But a closer look at the new NHL reveals something that might startle people: It has become a major trendsetter. How? After making a mess of their business for the previous 12 years, NHL owners got smart over the past 24 months.

The lockout from which the league emerged yesterday was triggered by owners who couldn’t say “no” to players’ financial demands. In the 1990s, as salaries increased, the owners were able to cover the costs with national TV deals, expansion fees (the NHL went from 21 to 30 teams), a hike in ticket prices, new buildings opening with more luxury boxes and club seats, and money from new technologies like cable and satellite TV.

By 2004, all of that enhanced revenue was gone and ticket prices were becoming too high for the average fan. NHL owners wanted cost certainty because their revenues weren’t rising as quickly as players’ salaries – they wanted salary givebacks and got it.

Today, big-spending teams like the Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Colorado Avalanche are on the same economic footing as small market teams in Nashville, Raleigh, and five of the six Canadian teams. Spending large sums of money didn’t always translate to success on the ice – just ask Rangers fans who haven’t seen a playoff game since 1997.

The “new” NHL seems to have just one troubled franchise: the Pittsburgh Penguins. Penguins ownership, led by Mario Lemieux, is seeking a new arena in the financially ailing city. Meanwhile, Kansas City has expressed interest in acquiring a hockey franchise for its new arena, which opens in 2007. It seems the NHL’s new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) has Kansas City officials thinking that because ticket prices will remain reasonable, the community will be able to support the NHL better than it would the NBA.

Elsewhere, the “new” NHL has ended ESPN’s claim as the “World Wide Leader in Sports” by signing a national cable contract with Comcast’s OLN channel. The league also signed a big money deal with XM Satellite Radio.

With confidence rising and huge broadcasting contracts in place, the NHL has found itself in an unusual position: that of an innovator. Sports owners and players pay close attention to other leagues closely when it comes to business negotiations and results. NHL owners came up with a huge win at the collective bargaining table and the league, which did not have a product in 2004-05, also came up with a big victory in nabbing a new national cable TV contract.

Having witnessed the league’s hard-line stance and ultimate victory during the lockout, NBA players decided not to roll the dice in their own CBA negotiations with owners this summer. The players took the owners’ money guarantee and signed on the dotted line.

The result of the NHL lockout could also embolden MLB owners to seek a legitimate salary cap when the 2007 CBA talks roll around. After all, there are some NHL owners, like Detroit’s Mike Itlich, who have MLB teams in their portfolios or are partners in various NHLMLB cable TV businesses.

A little background is necessary here. One of the NHL’s big owners is the cable TV giant Comcast, which has all sorts of agreements with various MLB teams, including the Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, and Cubs; various NHL teams including the Chicago Blackhawks and Washington Capitals; and various NBA teams including the Sacramento Kings, Chicago Bulls, and Washington Wizards; not to mention with the NFL Network for cable TV rights throughout the country. Comcast also owns the Philadelphia Flyers and lost out in an attempt to buy out the Walt Disney Company in a $66 billion takeover bid in 2004.

So Comcast was already a major sports player with regional sports networks in Philadelphia, Chicago, the Mid-Atlantic, Sacramento, and the soon-to-be New York Mets sports channel.

Comcast also had a small but not well watched sports network called the Outdoor Life Network, whose main attraction was the Tour de France. Ever since the failed Disney takeover, there were whispers that Comcast was positioning itself to launch a national cable sports network. It probably didn’t realize the kind of opportunity waiting in the wings.

During the NHL lockout, Disney-owned ESPN decided not to renew its national cable rights deal with the league because Disney executives decided the league wasn’t worth $60 million a year. Disney didn’t want to pay any rights fee, so Comcast jumped in and took the rights. The Outdoor Living Network became OLN, and all of a sudden ESPN’s strangle hold on sports on national cable TV ended.

The Comcast-NHL deal includes more than just showing games on Monday nights and during the playoffs. Comcast is getting broadband and cellular phone video rights as well, and will help the NHL get an American version of the NHL Network off the ground.

The Comcast-NHL deal will also have an affect on other leagues. MLB’s new cable TV deal with ESPN is non-exclusive, which means Comcast or any other American cable network can land a national baseball cable TV contract. Comcast is now in an excellent position to land the NFL’s Thursday-late season Saturday games package beginning in 2006, plus an MLB package in 2007. ESPN did get MLB’s broadband/cellular rights, but the network is no longer the only cable TV game in town thanks to the NHL’s deal with Comcast.

The NHL has shown a remarkable resiliency. Teams are selling tickets, the league is signing endorsement deals left and right, and innovative broadcasting deals are leading not just hockey, but other sports, into the future of sports on television. Remarkably, the one time moribund league has become the ultimate modern sports league.