After 113 days and a 16-hour negotiation session, the NHL and NHLPA finally came to an agreement to end the lockout. With the lockout over, NHL teams, including the Penguins will be getting back together to get ready for the shortened season.
Details regarding training camp are still be discussed, but Penguins general manager Ray Shero explained that, “We’re still waiting on details of length, is it going to be a 7-day camp? A 5-day camp? Either way we’ll be ready. Our plans have been in place for a while. Our equipment staff is ready, medical staff is ready, and I assume the players will be ready. Every team has been prepared for a shorter training camp. We’ll be ready to go.” Shero added that the number of players invited to training camp will be between twenty-four and twenty-six.
Captain Sidney Crosby said, “I‘m just so happy…So, so happy. It was quite a marathon, to say the least. I knew things were going well when I went to bed, but I didn‘t really know what to expect.”
With a new agreement in place, players will be returning from their lockout teams. This group includes Evgeni Malkin and Dustin Jeffrey. Tanner Glass and Deryk Engelland had both returned from their respective lockout teams at earlier times. Kris Letang, who had just signed a lockout deal with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL, will also be returning. Defenseman Simon Despres and forward Eric Tangradi will most likely be brought to Pittsburgh from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to be a part of that twenty-four to twenty-six man training camp roster
The new CBA will be ten years in length with the option to opt out after eight. The new agreement will also include a maximum contact length of seven years, unless that player is being re-signed. In that case the maximum is eight. The free agency period will begin on July 1. Since the agreement must still be ratified, the current season may be either fifty or forty-eight games in length and begin on either January 15 or 19.
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