Could the NHL Lockout really be over?

Apparently, the NHL and the Players' Union have come to an agreement in principle, and should be voted into place next week.

Here are a couple of big things from the agreement.

The expected salary cap likely will have a ceiling of $39 million and a minimum around $22 million.

Player salaries will not exceed 54 percent of league-wide revenues, expected to be around $1.8 billion. Players will also put money into escrow, and after each season that will be used to balance out the set percentage based on actual revenues.

We'll see how that all works out. The players can't be happy about the salary cap situation, even though I think it is a great idea.

The big test though is if fans come back to the sport. The NHL was hemorraging money before the lockout and had a pathetic number of viewers for the televised games. I personally can't wait for the puck to hit the ice, but that is purely out of love of the game.

I stuck with them during the first strike and I'll watch come fall.

But many won't.