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Think you could just throw your old 2005-2012 CBA in the trash? Think again. While doing an interview with Uffe Bodin of Sweden's no. 1 hockey outlet HockeySverige, the Senators top goalie prospect mentioned that he is of the understanding he will be a restricted free agent at the end of the year.

”I’ve heard people say I’ve got one year left on my deal, but I’ve been a pro for three years now and this is my last year.”

 “I was in more than 10 games the first year, because you count the games where you’re backing up as well.”

On whether he thinks he’ll get a one-way deal.

“I really hope so. It would take a lot for me to sign a two-way deal again.”

So let's dust off the old Egyptian parchment, shall we...

The lockout is over. The top six forwards look set. Marc Methot is slated to play with Karlsson. We're all fretting over how the rest of the defensive tandems are going to shake out. Brian Burke gets canned as GM of a despised Northeast Division rival. Whatever will @creecher1200 and I talk about during our latest episode of The 6th Sens Podcast.

Joining us on this particular episode of the podcast is Hall of Fame defenceman, four-time Stanley Cup champion and three time Norris Trophy winning Denis Potvin who joins us to talk about the state of the Senators blue line. Also joining us is Sean McIndoe  - a contributor to Grantland, the National Post and the author of The Best of Down Goes Brown: Greatest Hits and Brand New Classics-to-Be from Hockey's Most Hilarious Blog (which you can order right here). Besides buying his highly recommended book, you can give him a follow @downgoesbrown. 

As always, you can subscribe/download/stream the episode or entire catalogue of episodes from Itunes. Or you can download the file by right-clicking and saving this file. Or you can simply stream the episode below.

If you have any questions or comments about the podcast, please leave us some feedback in the comment thread below. Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoy the show.

Here is the tracklist for the show: Podcast tracklist: Pearl Jam Love Boat Captain; The Rural Alberta Advantage The Break Up; Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Come In Please; Departures Being There; King Tuff Keep On Movin'; and The Kinks Nothin In This World Can Stop Me Worrying 'Bout That Girl.

Yes we are getting tired of transcribing stuff, but Tim Murray is a great interview dammit!

The Assistant GM's full In The Box appearance can be heard here,or via streaming the embedded audio below.

My thoughts in bold.

On Cody Ceci being invited to camp...

Yeah, I think what we want to do here with Cody is reset him, reset his season. This certainly is no disreprect to the 67's, they've had a tough year...he's part of it. He's gonna move on now to a better team, obviously when you get traded from a low team to a higher team. He's gonna be counted on there heavily, and he's gotta be ready for that. And I think by coming in here, and getting a little bit of coaching from our guys on what we expect in the second half from him - it's a different situation so expectations are different. Put a lot of the onus on him to step up his game, and I think by starting him here with good players here it gives him a chance to just walk in there and you know have no issues on changing teams.

Can't say the Senators haven't been pro-active with Ceci's development. Back in December, Tim Murray confirmed they'd had Jason Smith working with him one-on-one.

Break out the money phones and call your friends, the Senators are opening their season against Evander Kane and the Winnipeg Jets. At least that is what's being reported by the Winnipeg Free Press anyways.  

National Hockey League sources have told the Free Press the Jets will open their season Saturday, Jan. 19 at the MTS Centre against the Ottawa Senators, with a 1:30 p.m. puck drop.

This had been the rumour last week.

If true, this game will inevitably be this season's first broadcasted NHL game on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada. It's just too bad that both will be playing in their current incarnation of jerseys.

For all of the redundant talk about the season being a sprint, opening against a Jets team that has had its fill of offseason controversy -- money phone Kane, Dustin Byfuglien's well-documented weight issues, Ondrej Pavelec's DUI in the Czech Republic -- bodes well for Ottawa.

Whatever media distractions these create for their players can only help to serve Ottawa and other Eastern Conference teams hoping to figure into the playoff picture. 

Of course it also helps Ottawa's case that they'll likely be facing Pavelec on opening day. 

Looking at his numbers from the Liberec Bili Tygri HC during the lockout -- a 4-10-0 record and a spotty 3.50 GAA and 896 SV% -- it's obvious that the only recored number that was lower than those ugly peripherals was his reported blood alcohol level of .20.

Not too much to ask Spezza to one-up this, no?

A day after Bryan Murray's first radio interview in months, Paul MacLean joined TGOR this morning as part of a whirlwind tour that saw him appear on Team 1200 as part of the Senators media blitz that is taking fold, trying to drum up and generate interest in a NHL product that has left such a sour taste in the mouths of fans. Fortunately for the Senators, MacLean comes across as such a candid and down to earth individual, he's a perfect ambassador to represent the franchise. 

Please note MacLean did hit on a few things that I did not bother to include in this post, so if you wish to listen to the full interview, you can do so here, or via streaming the embedded audio below.

As always, my thoughts will be in bold.

After a dreadfully slow last few months, I'm not sure I could have prepared for today's onslaught of Senators news. Not that I'm complaining mind you, it was a refreshing change of pace that culminated with Senators GM Bryan Murray making an appearance on this afternoon's edition of The Drive. 

Murray did hit on a few things that I did not bother to include in this post, so if you wish to listen to the full interview, you can do so here, or via streaming the embedded audio below.

As always, my thoughts will be in bold.

The Ottawa 67's have been out of it for weeks, and didn't shy away from telegraphing a move like this was possible. Days ago Tyler Graovac was moved to Belleville, and this afternoon Cody Ceci was traded to the Owen Sound Attack:

Cody Ceci, Steven Janes, and 3rd round pick have been traded to Owen Sound for Jacob Middleton and Joseph Blandisi >>> ow.ly/gBY7A

— Ottawa 67's (@Ottawa67sHockey) January 7, 2013

Ceci played 238 games for the 67's through four seasons, scoring 41 goals, 105 assists and added 20 points in 34 postseason contests.

The Ottawa native taken 15th overall by the Senators in the 2012 draft and was named co-captain of the 67's with Sean Monahan in September. And while Ceci's production has been solid - 40 points in 42 games, the team around him has struggled (this graph gives you some idea just how bad a possession team they are), the 67's currently sit last in the OHL. There was also some surprise when Ceci was not invited to the Canadian WJC camp, a decision that puzzled many inside and outside Ottawa.

A trade to a contender was the best thing that could of happened for his development. In comments to the Citizen today, Ceci relayed the Senators were expressing the same sentiment:

"I talked with the Senators about the potential for a trade and they seemed to think it was better for me to play on a contender than finish here so I'm happy that a lot of people agree on that."

The London Knights are the class of the OHL, but Owen Sound is right there in the next tier. Ceci will give them a boost and vice versa. Unfortunately the Senators 2012 third-round pick Jarrod Maidens remains out of the Attack lineup, so it's unlikely we'll see them playing together during this stint.

There was some question whether the Senators would invite Ceci to a shortened training camp (likely to start Saturday), though Bryan Murray in comments to the Team1200 today said he would be attending.

Bananas, it feels good to be writing down some hockey-related blurbs that that deal with the promise of new games.

In the wake of the lockout ending, the Senators organization conducted their first press conference this afternoon featuring President Cyril Leeder and head coach Paul MacLean. The media  addressed a number of items that were so eloquently captured in 140 characters or less by the likes of Sylvain St-Laurent (@syl_st_laurent), Daniel Slater (dslatertv), Ken Warren (@citizenkwarren), and Don Brennan (@sundonib). Midseason form fellas.

Amongst the news, here’s what we know:

- Leeder indicated that the 48-game NHL season would conclude on April 25^th or 26^th, but had no information pertaining to its start date. (Note: speculation is that it will start on January 19^th.)

- Paul MacLean affirmed that fewer than 30 players would participate in camp, however, he remained noncommittal when answering questions as to whether both Ben Bishop and Robin Lehner would be invited to camp.

- While emphasizing that Craig Anderson would remain the team’s number one goalie, MacLean expressed confidence in both Bishop and Lehner to perform and said that the best goaltender would get the opportunity to play. The cynical side of me looks at Bishop’s one-way deal, the fact that Lehner has never demonstrated an ability to be a workhorse in the AHL’s regular season and makes me think that it’s Bishop’s job to lose.

- Although the organization laid off 35 employees during the lockout, they have been called back. Another 25 employees were hired to account for the start of the NHL season.

- The Senators’ season ticket base is down by 800 from 11,300 to 10,500, a 7% drop. This is certainly a different number than what the organization told the Globe and Mail last week, which reported, "the Ottawa Senators have had less than 1 per cent of their 11,300 season ticket base walk away". Leeder expressed confidence in being able to get back to that benchmark and exceeding it; announcing a goal to eventually reach 13,000 season ticket holders. Although he's been saying that for some time now.

More on Cody Ceci's trade to the Owen Sound Attack and GM Bryan Murray's appearance on the Team 1200 later. 

A tentative agreement has been reached between NHL and NHLPA - source

— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) January 6, 2013

Tentative agreement reached between NHL and NHLPA

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 6, 2013

Lockout is tentatively over.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) January 6, 2013

Sportsnet learned 64.3m final cap hit.

— Nick Kypreos (@RealKyper) January 6, 2013

May take a day or two or three to figure out for sure how many games we're playing and start date.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) January 6, 2013

Let the record show the news came down at 5:09am.

The will they or won't they speculation ended with this joint Bettman/Fehr press conference shortly before 6am...they looked tired, but Gary proclaimed - "the basic framework of a deal has been agreed upon" :

NHL Board Of Governors and the NHLPA membership still have to ratify the deal, but that all seems a formality right now.

And here's a few more early details:

As per @jsportsnet #NHL teams will only play within conference, league to start as early as Jan. 15

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) January 6, 2013

Further to @aaronward_nhl reporting Year 2 cap at $64.3 M, I can add that Year 2 floor will be $44 M

— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) January 6, 2013

Sources tell Sportsnet new #CBA deal includes revenue sharing at 200M plus 60M growth fund.

— Nick Kypreos (@RealKyper) January 6, 2013

Draft lottery will change. All 14 teams fully eligible for 1st pick overall. Weighting system may remain, but 4-move restriction out.

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) January 6, 2013

Player contract term limit at 7 years (8 years for your own player).

— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) January 6, 2013

Salary arbitration walkaways: cannot happen unless player award is at least $3.5 million, indexed to increase every year at rate salaries do

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 6, 2013

Opening of training camp either Wed, Thur or Fri. Depends on ratification.

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) January 6, 2013

Think I'm about 75% bitter and 25% excited.

Go SNES.