After holding a vote today, the National Hockey League Players Association has ratified the recent collective bargaining agreement. After tallying the votes, around ninety percent of the NHL’s players supported the deal. Union leader Bob Goodenow supported the vote, saying, “We look forward to starting fresh with this new agreement. We’re fully committed to the new deal and we anticipate great success for the game as we go forward.”
The league’s owners are expected to ratify the new deal tomorrow during a meeting of the board of governors. This vote is to be followed by the much anticipated draft lottery. The results of the lottery will be announced starting at 4 PM and will be broadcast live on TSN and NHL.com. No live coverage has been announced for US fans.
The flurry that is now the NHL offseason continues Saturday, when a six day buyout period will begin. During this time, teams will be allowed to buyout existing player contracts in order to help get under the new salary cap. Many big name players could be bought out, and it will likely be the busiest free agency period in league history.
With all of this going on now, it is certainly an interesting and exciting time to be a fan of the NHL.