I'm Not Dead Yet! - The NHL Lockout Comes to a Close, Probably

With the 2012-2013 season on the line, the players and owners came together and finally reached a tentative agreement on a Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The result? It looks like a win for the players, though both sides got some things they wanted. Here's how it all shook out:

• Cap of $64.3 million (up from $60 million originally proposed by league, down from $67 million proposed by players)
• Salary floor of $44 million (a mere $8.3 million in 2011-2012)
• Limits on contract lengths
• 8 years if re-signing, 7 years if signing a free agent that switches teams
• Salary variance maxed at 35% from one year to the next, as well as no year being more than 50% lower than the highest annual salary in the deal
• E.g. anyone with a salary of $10 million for one year within the contract can't have a salary lower than $5 million for another year in that contract.
• This should help avoid wildly long deals that circumvented the cap, but it's still a pretty good deal for the players. The NHL was asking for 5% variance at one point.
• Revenue sharing of $200 million, with a $60 million "growth fund." Not sure exactly what that is yet.
• Neutral third party will make decisions on appeals for suspensions of 6 games or more.

Now with a little luck, the puck will drop in a few weeks, but part of me is still hoping this framework for a deal breaks down and we see the rise of the WHA.