Donald Fehr (executive director) Gary Bettman (commissioner) Bill Daly (deputy commissioner) The 2012–13 NHL lockout was a labor dispute between the National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) that began at 11:59 pm EDT on September 15, 2012.

The lockout shortened the 2012–13 NHL season, originally scheduled to begin on October 11, 2012, from 82 to 48 games, a reduction of 41.5 percent.

[3] An issue for the owners were desires to reduce the players guaranteed 57% share of hockey-related revenues, introduce term limits on contracts, eliminate salary arbitration, and change free agency rules.

This was also the third labor dispute for NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr who, as head of the Major League Baseball Players Association, led his union through a lockout in 1990 and a strike in 1994–95.

Many businesses in the United States and Canada located near NHL arenas lost money as a result of the games not played.

Fehr suggested their proposal could save the league as much as $465 million and would feature an enhanced revenue sharing system that would help lower-revenue teams.

The union's last offer before the expiry of the collective bargaining agreement continued to call for an unlinked salary cap that would steadily increase over a five-year term.

[15] Having cancelled the remainder of the preseason, and regular season games up to November 1,[16][17] on October 16, Bettman offered a 50–50 revenue split in the owners' latest CBA proposal.

[23] The league and players' association resumed negotiations on November 6, meeting over six consecutive days in a neutral, undisclosed location.

The league offered to raise the "Make Whole" provision to $300 million and to give ground on player contracting and pension issues, but identified three components of the CBA they considered important: a five-year limit on player contracts, a ten-year length of the new CBA, and compliance issues.

[32] After talks broke down, rumours leaked that the NHLPA planned on filing a "disclaimer of interest" (a quicker, less formal way to dissolve the players' union, compared with decertification)[33] and, with collective bargaining no longer in effect, pursuing an antitrust lawsuit against the NHL.

The NHL responded on December 14 by filing a class action suit with the U.S. District Court in New York seeking to establish that its lockout was legal.

[41] Around 4:45 am EST on January 6, after approximately 16 continuous hours of negotiating, a tentative deal was reached on a new collective bargaining agreement to end the lockout.

Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk, Evgeni Malkin, and Alexander Ovechkin were among the stars who returned to their native Russia.

Other players, such as Patrice Bergeron, Logan Couture, Patrick Kane, Rick Nash, Matt Duchene, Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza, Max Pacioretty, John Tavares, Joe Thornton and Henrik Zetterberg, signed with teams in Switzerland.

[55] Top NHLers, including Patrice Bergeron, Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza, and John Tavares, helped Team Canada win its first Spengler Cup since 2007.

"Operation Hat Trick", a charity hockey game, was played at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City to raise money for Hurricane Sandy victims.

Some of the NHL players that also participated in the game included Henrik Lundqvist, Martin Brodeur, Andy Greene, Bobby Ryan, and James van Riemsdyk.

[65] When the season started on January 19, 2013, the Chicago Blackhawks began a streak of 24 consecutive games without a regulation loss, setting an NHL record.