Getty ImagesAlex Kovalev was a name we didn’t expect to see knocking around NHL training camps this season, but then again we expected NHL training camps to begin in September, too.

So hearing Kovalev, 40 in February, will be attending Florida Panthers camp is intriguing. Not only because his name still carries a bit of cache amongst hockey fans, especially those who can’t recall his completely uneven 2010-11 stints with the Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins; but because Kovalev in a 48-game sprint to the playoffs could be an asset.

If he can keep up.

Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

Canes• Peter Karmanos, owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, apologizes to fans for the NHL lockout in a letter. Canes fans, not Whalers fans, we imagine … [Canes; s/t John Hall]

• NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly tells Steve Whyno that the 2013 season will get going on Jan. 19. "It's now our objective to be in a position to open Training Camps by Sunday, January 13 … And if we can do so, we would plan to commence a 48-game Regular Season beginning on Saturday, January 19." [Washington Times]

• Like Ilya Kovalchuk, Andrei Markov of the Montreal Canadiens wants to make sure that the CBA is really, really, really ratified before leaving the KHL. [Gazette]

• Philadelphia Flyers injury news: “Barring a complete turnaround with his injured left wrist, Danny Briere could miss the shortened-season opener on Jan. 19. At most, he guesses, maybe a week of the season.” [CSN Philly]

• Expect Tim Thomas to remain in his bunker. [Causeway Crowd]

• Kristian Huselius retires due to his bum hip. [Eye on Hockey]

• Great stuff from Shane Doan on whether the lockout tarnished the NHL: “You don’t want to say it’s embarrassing, but it’s close to that. I’m a fan of sports, and I’m particularly a fan of hockey. And you look at the amount of money that’s available to each side, and the amount of money to be divided up and handed out is incredible. And so you think, ‘Let’s just get it done.’ … Yet, at the same time, the amount of money is what causes the lockout because there is so much that it brings in business, and business, in this situation … trumps the sport whenever the CBA comes up. You’re idealistic as a player when you first come into the league. You think, ‘This is the greatest thing in the world. I’m playing the sport I love to play and I’m playing it at the highest level.’ … As the business of the game works into the equation, you sometimes feel it gets tarnished. … Now, our goal is to prove that it hasn’t [been tarnished], and bring back that pride and bring back that honor that goes with being a player.” [Sports Radio Interviews]

• Roberto Luongo on his uncertain future with the Vancouver Canucks: "[Gillis] has the green light to take his time and do what’s best for the team. “I’m open-minded about a lot of possibilities. We’ll work things out together and figure things out as we go along here.” [Sun Sentinel]

• Prayers to Dominic Moore and his family on the passing of his wife, Katie. [TBO.com]

ARLINGTON, Va. – Alex Ovechkin arrived back in Washington from Russia on Monday afternoon, just over 24 hours after the NHL lockout reached its tentative end. He said fans recognized him in the airport, thanked him for coming back from the KHL and said they couldn’t wait to see him play.

Frankly, Ovechkin wasn’t sure when he’d see the Washington Capitals fans again.

“To be honest with you, no. I thought I would play to the end of the season in Russia,” he said on Tuesday at the Capitals’ practice facility, meeting the local media for the first time since last season.

“It was a hard time for some of us. But it’s over.”

Getty ImagesWith the NHL lockout settled, hockey fans wait with breathless anticipation for the League’s owners and general managers to find a way to subvert, cheat and undercut the rules they’ve just helped establish.

It’ll happen. Some loophole will be discovered and exploited until the next lockout eight years from now. Teams will claim they’re just playing by the established rules. Bettman will get pissy about it. Agents will guffaw on Twitter.

It’ll be like the cap-circumventing contracts of the last several years, which violated the spirit of the salary cap and created a world where Ilya Kovalchuk makes $7 million in 2018, $1 million in 2020 and $4 million in 2024.

What’s the NHL to do? At the very least, let the loop-holers know there are repercussions for their actions.

Back in Oct. 2012, the NHL proposed a way for teams that dabbled in the dark arts of cap circumvention to pay for their sins in the next CBA. From the League’s proposal:

All years of existing SPCs with terms in excess of five (5) years will be accounted for and charged against a team's Cap (at full AAV) regardless of whether or where the Player is playing. In the event any such contract is traded during its term, the related Cap charge will travel with the Player, but only for the year(s) in which the Player remains active and is being paid under his NHL SPC. If, at some subsequent point in time the Player retires or ceases to play and/or receive pay under his NHL SPC, the Cap charge will automatically revert (at full AAV) to the Club that initially entered into the contract for the balance of its term.

In other words, if any of the elephantine cap cheating deals on the books were traded – be it Kovalchuk, Marian Hossa, Roberto Luongo or Henrik Zetterberg – the club that signed that player to the circumventing deal would take on his cap hit when he retires, even if he’s playing for another NHL team.

The NHL and NHLPA agreed to include this clause in the new CBA. But Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com reports there’s a significant tweak to the provision that might make trading these contracts rather difficult.

Getty ImagesCSKA and SKA are both in Kontinental Hockey League action on Tuesday. Pavel Datsyuk had played for CSKA during the NHL lockout, but won’t appear in their game, apparently on his way back to the Detroit Red Wings. Ilya Kovalchuk had played for SKA during the NHL lockout and … is in the lineup.

Oh my.

The KHL has been making a full-court press to keep any and all NHL stars that have played in Russia during the lockout. (Hey, All-Star Game gotta eat.) Unless they're destined to play for the Islanders, they're all returning to the NHL.

Kovalchuk is, obviously, a marquee attraction that the League attempted to court when he was a free agent two years ago. You know, before he signed with the New Jersey Devils for 15 years and $100 million.

Is Kovalchuk spurning the Devils and staying in the KHL? SKA GM Alexei Kasatonov – a former Devils defenseman, mind you – offered a ‘no comment’ to Pavel Lysenkov of SovSport.

The rumors of Kovalchuk staying reached the desk of Bob McKenzie of TSN, who

GettyThe NHL lockout appears over. Here are some of the winners and losers from the last 113 days.

WINNER: Don Fehr. Nearly six years ago, the NHLPA fired Ted Saskin under a cloud of corruption. Two years later, they fired Paul Kelly as NHLPA head under a cloud of mistrust and with the union fractured. Enter Don Fehr in 2010. The former baseball union leader brought the players together through increased communication, and kept them together through the rough waters of the lockout. Within the negotiation, he managed to maintain as much as could be expected in a work stoppage where the NHL had all the leverage. And boy did he piss off the NHL’s lead negotiators. Mightily. His legacy will be that of a labor warrior and a guy who, despite his enemies’ protests, wasn’t committed to killing the National Hockey League for his own interests.

LOSER: Gary Bettman. We’ll never really know how bad the divisions within ownership were during the lockout. Suffice it to say, it sounds like you had important teams that weren’t in favor of the lockout, and others that supported it turning heel on Bettman as it lingered into 2013. By the end of the process, you had some owners reportedly irate that the NHL gave up too much to the players to get a deal done. Bettman again served his role well as a lightning rod for the players and a sparring partner for the media. But it was clear that he didn’t have the same mandate, and hence the rigidity, that he had back in 2005. He’s now the man who effectively lost two seasons (two halves and a whole) to work stoppages. That’s just embarrassing for the NHL.

Earlier this month, Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet got heads spinning with news that the NHL and the NHLPA have discussed independently the notion of expanding the Stanley Cup Playoffs by four teams, going from 16 to 20 teams.

Initially, the thought was the NHL would expand the playoffs when it realigns its teams into four divisions, with a four seed and a five seed featured in a “play-in” series. But as the lockout continued, there was speculation that the playoffs could be expanded for the 2013 season. Via Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun earlier this month:

That would increase the playoff pool to 20 teams and would offer the opportunity to create more fan interest in the post-season this year. The idea of having 66% of the teams make the playoffs doesn't sit well with some, but it's the most exciting time of the year.

"They have to look at ways to create more revenues because the damage from this lockout is going to be big," said a league executive speaking on the condition of anonymity Wednesday. "It's going to mean more races in the final weeks of the year. It's a positive."

An expanded postseason would be a nice, bright shiny thing that can distract many fans from their lockout anger and/or cure their apathy. It would be parity on steroids, with every team in the hunt in a 48-game schedule.

So will it happen for 2013?

No, according to NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly, who told Puck Daddy on Monday via email:

“No expansion of the Playoffs being contemplated for this year (and I don't think any is being contemplated beyond this year either). “

Again, it’s hard to imagine the NHL and the NHLPA continuing to leave that money on the table if the fans were open to it – and based on our feedback, more are open to it then previously anticipated. But Daly said not for this year, and that’s the important info.

It's a Monday edition of Marek vs. Wyshynski beginning at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT, and we're talking about the following and more:

Special Guest Star: John Shannon of Sportsnet talks about the lockout's end. Mike Keenan at 3 p.m. to talk Strategy Room and coming back to a shortened season. Plus, potentially a PK Subban appearance!

• Marek and Wysh break down the new CBA.

• Some winners and losers in the lockout.

• How will the fans react?

Question of the Day: What will you miss most about the lockout?

Tweet your answers with the hashtag #MvsW to @jeffmarek.

Click here for the Sportsnet live stream or click the play button above! Click here to download podcasts from the show each day. Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or Feedburner.