The NHL and the Players’ Association have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, reflecting the terms of a 10-year Collective Bargaining Agreement, which puts an end to the lockout in the world’s biggest hockey league.

According to the new Agreement, which will be the longest in history, the hockey related revenues (HRR) will be shared 50-50 between the club owners and the players.

The document also limits the length of individual player contracts to seven years, which may be prolonged for another season when a team are re-signing their own man.

The NHL teams are to open their training camps on Sunday, January 13, with the shortened regular season scheduled for face-off on January 19.

It will consist of 720 games, with each side holding 48 meetings before the playoffs begin.

It was originally planned that the 2012/13 NHL season would start on October 11, but the players and the owners failed to come to terms on the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Many of the league’s stars – including Evgeny Malkin, Alex Ovechkin, and Ilya Kovalchuk – waited out the nearly four-month-long lockout in the KHL clubs, but are returning to North America to fulfill their contracts.

• A Permanent Economic Emergency