Collected Thoughts

They've negotiated a salary cap and revenue-sharing and younger players will be much more restricted in how much money they can make, but free agency will be available to players much earlier than it is now. As well, players have to put a percentage of their salaries in escrow until the teams make enough money to be profitable.

So it is kinda of a hybrid of the NFL and the NBA deals, with stronger restrictions on how much money the players can make, but with a better deal for the players once the league starts making money again.

What will this mean for low payroll teams like Tampa Bay? Well, it will be much harder to hang on to players like LeCavalier in future. There will be much more liberal movement of free agents (especially young players, who have had no access to free agency) than there has been. However, in theory, small teams should be able to remain competitive because of the money being put back in the pot by the big earners via revenue-sharing. Not that the NHL needed more competitive balance (Tampa Bay/Calgary final is about as balanced as you can get), but this helps protect against the new deal tipping the scales.

I think we'll see the NHL more like the NFL has been in recent years, with more marquee players switching teams every couple of years. That will be new.

Will Tampa Bay be able to defend the title? Who knows? NHL playoffs are completely Rock-Paper-Scissors (if you remember my comments during the last playoffs). It depends on who you run up against and when.