LOS ANGELES - The NHL and NHL Players' Association have agreed to a four-year extension of the Collective Bargaining Agreement which will carry through the 2029-30 season.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, NHL Players’ Association Executive Director Marty Walsh and NHLPA Assistant Executive Director Ron Hainsey announced Friday they've reached an agreement in principle pending ratification votes on both sides.
"We can all look forward to at least five years more of labor peace of the Players' Association and the NHL working together," Bettman said. "While we didn't agree on everything, we had a very constructive, professional, collaborative collective bargaining process, which I think you all know started (at the) end of March and April.
"I think we identified the issues that were important to both sides and I think that Marty and I have established a very good tone and a very good basis for our relationship going forward. I am delighted."
The new CBA does not include any substantial changes to the financial structure the League has been operating with since 2013, when the NHL and NHLPA agreed to a 50-50 split of Hockey Related Revenue, with the Salary Cap determined by that revenue split.
But the new deal will reportedly see the NHL regular season increase to 84 games per team (two more) while the preseason schedule is reduced to four from six per team.
According to several media reports, another significant change from the current CBA will see the maximum length of contracts reduced by one season, so a player re-signing with his current team will be able to sign for up to seven years, while players signing with a new team as a free agent on or after July 1 can sign for up to six.
The current CBA, which was signed in 2013 and extended in 2020, expires Sept. 15, 2026. The extension would begin the following day and go through Sept. 15, 2030.
The NHL and NHLPA will require ratification from their respective boards before the CBA extension becomes official.
"When I first started this job 2 1/2 years ago, we talked about collective bargaining," Walsh said. "... We talked about the 4 Nations (Face-Off), we talked about the OIympics, we talked about the World Cup and all the great things happening in the sport. We thought that it would be good to get this conversation moving. ... The process for us now is to take this agreement to the entire membership for ratification; we're going to do that over the next week or so.
"... I'm happy with the process. Hopefully, the players will be happy with the outcome."
Reaching an agreement for an extension more than 14 months before the current CBA is set to expire speaks volumes for the working relationship between the two sides.
The announcement came two days after Bettman provided the NHL Board of Governors an extensive report on the CBA negotiations and hours ahead of the start of the 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft at Peacock Theater (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS).
