From NBC Sports

The NHL has made a new proposal to the NHLPA, offering the players a 50/50 split of hockey-related revenue.

Commissioner Gary Bettman called it a “long-term offer” and believes a full 82-game schedule is possible if the season starts by Nov. 2.

The league’s last proposal, presented on Sept. 12, called for players to receive 49 percent of hockey-related revenue in Year 1 of the agreement, 48 percent in Year 2, and 47 percent in the remaining four years.

The players received 57 percent of HRR under terms of the last CBA.

The Record’s Tom Gulitti reports that the offer also “in some way protects player salaries as is in 2012-13.” The NHLPA has been adamant it won’t accept a deal that results in a pay cut (via rollback or escrow), so if accurate, that’s significant.

How could salaries be protected in “some way”? According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, the “NHL intends on calculating lost salary in getting to 50-50 and will pay the players back over time.”

Gulitti also reports that the “NHL proposal was comprehensive, including length of contracts, free agency age, salary arbitration, etc.”

NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr refused to comment extensively on the specifics of the offer, but he did say he was hopeful it would provide a good starting point.

Fehr also said the term of the proposal was “at least six years.”

The NHLPA has scheduled a conference call for 5 p.m. ET to discuss the specifics of the offer with the players.

asdfhasdfasjfhalskdjfhaskjh! Holy Crap we might have a season on our hands, folks.

After over a month of seemingly NOTHING happening between the two sides, I was worried we'd go at least into November, and maybe even December with negotiations before either side even budged - if they'd budge at all. Nothing's over and done with yet, but this is very good news. If the NHLPA agrees swiftly, this deal keeps an 82 game season intact, and more importantly, gets our players on the ice and our butts in the seats watching them within only a few weeks.

I do have worries about the situation of it only being a 6 year term, but that's far better than losing any more games over it this season.

The demands of the NHLPA might be a bit different, as they're still losing what, 7% out on this one? That said a 50-50 split, what with how much growing revenue the league brings in as a whole, seems like a pretty fair situation to me going forward.

Sign the deal boys!