from Jim Morris of CBC,

No one can predict how long, what NHL commissioner Gary Bettman calls a pause, will last. There are questions surrounding how NHL players will be paid, what happens if the season is suddenly extended into summer, or how it might affect free agency.

"What's happening is we're making up the rules now as we go," said Lindsay Meredith, a professor emeritus in marketing at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. "It's uncharted but they've got to come up with some rules and solutions pretty quickly."

Craig Button, a former NHL general manager and now a television analyst, said the closest situation the league encountered previously was the lockout which cancelled the entire 2004-05 season.

"Nobody knows where to go because this is unprecedented," Button told TSN. "We're in in uncharted waters."

Hockey agent J.P. Barry, whose clients include Evgeni Malkin, Morgan Rielly and Filip Forsberg, said all players remain under contract.

read on