updated 1:11 PM EST, Sun January 6, 2013
(CNN) — The National Hockey League and the NHL Players’ Association struck a tentative agreement early Sunday that may end a three-month lockout of unionized players, league and union officials announced.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said the “basic framework” of a deal had been agreed upon after a 16-hour negotiating session at a Manhattan hotel. The details must be approved by both the players and the league’s governing board, Bettman told reporters in a predawn news conference, and he said it was too early to provide details about what it might mean for a shortened hockey season.
But players’ union chief Donald Fehr said he expected those steps to follow “fairly rapidly and with some dispatch.”