With the new CBA and Return to Play plan working through the voting process, new details on the timing for next season have been discovered. It sounds like the summary of the CBA the players are using to vote on has been leaked.

This exercise in pretending no one was talking salary dollars, when everyone was talking salary dollars, stakeouts of agents offices, and other absurdities has now come to a close. We’ll always have Steven Stamkos’ interview with the mayor and Canadian Tire to remember it by.

Steven Stamkos, John Tory and the Toronto media

This means that young players can burn a year of their contract with those games.

By my reckoning, this means playing through all the rounds of the playoffs without any off days.

Details of NHL broadcast schedule revealed

And now the big news:

This adjustment to the previously reported offseason calendar means a few things. The draft will need to be fit in there rapidly after the Stanley Cup Final, and the whole process of qualifying offers for RFAs is going to be accelerated. There has to be a buyout window in there somewhere, and really, they need two of those.

This schedule works if some rounds of the playoffs don’t go full length, and will be tough if they do.

These dates are already slightly adjusted.

Other news:

And while we’re here, the new minimum salary numbers. Please ignore old news on this:

The NHL is going to try to be as smart as the AHL:

My only concern here is that with this tight timeline, TSN won’t have time to trade Marner as many times as they’ll want to.

Also, as always, until we have the text of the CBA for full context, get out your salt shakers.

This Is How It Works