Pittsburgh gets the first pick.

The Sidney Crosby lottery is over and the Pittsburgh Penguins will pick first for the 2005 NHL entry draft.

The order of selection:

1-Pittsburgh 16-New-York Rangers
2-Anaheim 17-Phoenix
3-Carolina 18-Nashville
4-Minnesota 19-Detroit
5-Montreal 20-Philadelphia
6-Colombus 21-Toronto
7-Chicago 22-Boston
8-Atlanta 23-New-Jersey
9-Ottawa 24-St-Louis
10-Vancouver 25-Edmonton
11-Los Angeles 26-Calgary
12-San Jose 27-Colorado
13-Buffalo 28-Dallas
14-Washington 29-Florida
15-New-York Islanders 30-Tampa Bay

The order will be reversed for the 2nd round of picks...Tampa picking 30th and 31th picks and so on.

New rules.

After signing with the NHLPA, the National Hockey League institutes new rules.

-No more tie games, a shootout will determine a winner in every regular season game tied after a 5 minute 4-on-4 overtime. The winner gets 2 points the loser gets 1.

-Abolition of the center ice red line.

-Any team icing the puck will not be authorized to make a player change after the icing.

-Reduction of the neutral zone, giving more space in both offensive zones.

-Goals will be installed 2 feet closer from the back boards.

-Goaltender`s pads will be reduced from 12 inches to 11 inches wide.

-Goaltenders will not be allowed to get out of their net to play the puck anymore.

They finally agreed...

After 301 days of dispute the NHL and NHLPA finally agreed on a 6 year deal.

A lot of details in the 600+ page document but mainly a salary cap is installed, and a 24% salary cut.
The global player salary and benefits must be inside 54% of the total revenues.
850 000$ is the maximum salary for a rookie.
450000$ is the minimum salary.
No player can have more than 20% of the team salary cap.
Free agency goes from 31 years old to 27 years old but will be in effect in 4 years only.

GAME ON!