NHL labor talks making progress?

According to a Toronto newspaper the League and the Players' union have come to an aggreement on a salary cap. Maybe ESPN's not picking up the option for next season which is going to cost the NHL 60 million finally knocked some sense into these people. We'll have to wait and see.

TORONTO (June 8) - The two sides in the National Hockey League lockout have agreed on a salary-cap system, eliminating the biggest stumbling block to the resumption of play next season, according to a Canadian newspaper's website.

Although details of the proposed agreement were not released on Wednesday, the Globe and Mail reported that a source close to the owners said there would be a team-by-team salary cap, based on a percentage of the revenue of each franchise.

The league has previously demanded that the cap be 54 percent of a team's revenue.

However, this does not mean that an overall deal on the lockout is imminent. Negotiators for the players and owners are now working on other issues such as salary arbitration and free agency, according to GlobeandMail.com.

NHL vice-president Bill Daly, the league's chief negotiator, declined to confirm or deny reports of a salary-cap deal.

But he did say publicly on Tuesday that negotiators had moved on to other issues.

The lockout caused the cancellation of the 2004-05 season.