NHL Lockout Over: Gomez, Dubinsky, Crabb, Thompson End Alaska Aces Terms

It appears that the NHL lockout will end and there could be a season after all, which means that Scott Gomez, Joey Crabb, and Nate Thompson will end their terms with the Alaska Aces.

The National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players' Association reached an agreement early Sunday morning but that deal still needs to be signed off before it’s official.

As of Sunday, the NHL players on the Aces roster are sitting out the game in Ontario, with the exception of Thompson, who remains on the injured list.

The official word of when the NHL players will hang up their Glacier Blue jerseys has yet to be made, but can expected as more details are made available about the NHL season.

“You have to realize that when put this team together we had no thought that we were going to have any NHL players, so the team was already put together the way we wanted it presented,” Terry Parks, Managing Member Aces Ownership, said. “We had some early injuries which really put the kibosh on us, as you know, Ward and Hall and Kremyer - you know we had three guys out so there all healthy or will be healthy fairly quickly, so we’re in pretty good shape.”

The nuts and bolts of the deal include 7-year contract limits for players, if a player is re-singing with their current team they can get an eighth year.

In the 2013-2014 season, the salary cap will be $64.3 million under the first full year under this new deal.

The floor remains at $44 million and this year’s season length has yet to be determined but is expected to be 48-50 games long starting sometime between the 15th and 19th of this month.

This collective bargaining agreement is a 10 year deal with mutual outs at 8 years.

The deal still needs to be approved by both the Board of Governors and the NHL players association.