from Rick Westhead of TSN,

The NHL is counting on Nobel Prize winner Daniel McFadden to help fight a high-stakes lawsuit in which a group of hockey fans are trying to change the way NHL teams sell their broadcast rights.

McFadden won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2000 for his theories on how consumers are offered choices and how they make those choices.

In a lawsuit filed two years ago, some angry hockey fans claim NHL restrictions on broadcasting games violated U.S. anti-trust laws and were inappropriately driving up the cost of sports cable TV packages.

Since 1985, the NHL has prevented teams from selling their broadcast rights to most of their games outside of their local area.

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