An 84-game season is among the changes coming to the NHL as part of the new labor deal

An -game season is coming to the NHL as part of an extension of the collective bargaining agreement that has been tentatively agreed to by the league and the Players Association They broadcasted the deal Friday in Los Angeles before the first round of the draft It still necessities to be ratified by the Board of Governors and the full NHLPA membership Two games are being added to to the regular season the maximum length of contracts players can sign is being shortened and a salary cap will be implemented in the playoffs for the first time two people narrated The Associated Press on Thursday The NHL and NHLPA began negotiations in earnest this spring after agreeing at the Nations Face-Off in February to jointly hold a World Cup of Hockey in With revenue urgent records annually and the cap increasing exponentially in the coming years Commissioner Gary Bettman and union executive director Marty Walsh voiced optimism about reaching an agreement hastily There were no disagreements on a host of major issues like in previous bargaining talks The extension through provides the sport extended labor peace since the last lockout in - which shortened that season to games Here is what is changing Longer season Going from to games beginning in - making the season total games is also expected to include a reduction in exhibition play to four games apiece for the teams The additions would be played within divisions evening out the schedule to ensure four showdowns each season between rivals like Toronto and Boston Dallas and Colorado and Washington and Pittsburgh Presently there is a rotation that has various division opponents facing off only three times a season That imbalance is coming to an end and this is not the first time the NHL has had an -game season The league experimented with that in - and - when each club added a pair of neutral site games Shorter contracts Since players have been able to re-sign with their own club for up to eight years and sign with another for up to seven years Under the new CBA each would be reduced by a year to seven for re-signing and six for changing teams Top players given the injury risks in the sport have preferred the longest contracts doable The same goes for general managers eager to keep talent in the fold as long as workable Nathan MacKinnon Sebastian Aho Leon Draisaitl Juuse Saros Travis Konecny Mathew Barzal and within the past limited months Mikko Rantanen are all among the top players who have signed lucrative eight-year deals But with the salary cap getting its biggest increases season by season over the next three years the thinking had already begun to change Auston Matthews re-signed for only four years with Toronto last summer and Connor McDavid could also opt for a short-term contract extension with Edmonton Playoff cap At present teams with players on long-term injured reserve can exceed the salary cap by roughly the amount of the players salaries until the playoffs begin Several times over the past decade Stanley Cup contenders have used LTIR to activate players at the start of or early in the playoffs after they missed particular or all of the regular season Florida did so with Matthew Tkachuk before winning the second of back-to-back titles Vegas has done it with Mark Stone on multiple occasions Tampa Bay with Nikita Kucherov and Chicago with Patrick Kane The rule has been criticized as an unfair loophole a way to stockpile talent and then add even more for the postseason After he and Carolina were eliminated by the Lightning in Dougie Hamilton quipped that the Hurricanes lost to a organization that s million over the cap Tampa Bay went back to back and players wore T-shirts with that saying on it during their Cup celebration That will no longer be attainable though it s not exactly clear how it will work