Gaborik, a three-time all star, was obtained from the New York Rangers in exchange for center Derick Brassard, right wing Derek Dorsett, defenseman John Moore and a sixth round pick in the 2014 NHL Draft.

The Jackets also sent former rookie of the year award-winning goaltender Steve Mason to the Philadelphia Flyers for goaltender Michael Leighton and a third round pick in the 2015 NHL Draft.

Finally, Columbus picked up forward Blake Comeau from the Calgary Flames in exchange for a fifth round pick in this summer’s draft.

The hockey season, or about half of it, was saved after the NHL and the players’ association finally came to terms early Sunday morning.

A majority of the league’s owners and union’s members still have to approve the 10-year deal. But, hey, those are just details. Most fans are just thrilled to have the game back.

“I was just like, ‘Oh, cool!”

That’s how Robert Card reacted as he watched a ticker run along the bottom of his TV screen Sunday morning stating a deal was struck. Card was leaving for his daughter’s hockey game at the Chiller Ice Rink at Easton when he saw the news.

The girls’ hockey game just wrapped up. And parents, like Card, stand by the locker rooms to greet their little players who come out pulling over-sized equipment bags sometimes bigger than the children.

Card is excited as he talks of the potential for the season which is set to start in a couple weeks and have about 50 games.

“Hopefully we’ll get some good hockey now going and get some streaks. Blue Jackets might be able to get some good teams together,” Card said. “And hopefully make a chance for the post season. Myself, I’m from Pittsburgh, but I love the fact that I can watch NHL hockey again.”

Nearby, Mitch Gargac hugged and reassured his daughter that she played a fine goalie, especially for only the second time. Gargac, who’s glad the strike is over, has mixed feelings about the outcome.

“Very disappointed though for the first half of the season, how things shook out between the owners and the players,” he said.

And certainly, as other fans are doing right now, Gargac is contemplating whether he will keep his five season tickets.

“I love our Blue Jackets here in Columbus, but I’m not certain my money’s going to go back to the NHL,” Gargac said. “Both my children play, and I may take the money and put it into something else. I can have as much fun here at Easton and Columbus Chiller watching the children play than I can watch the million dollar salaries on the ice not play.”

The lockout may have hurt the Blue Jackets. The last place team was already struggling to attract fans. And the lock out wiped out Columbus’s chance to host the NHL All Star Game.

Hockey granddad and fan Fred Card, has also seen the economic impact.

“I’m in the restaurant equipment business, and I’m glad for the restaurants to get back to work for the hockey games going on,” he said.

Card spends a good deal of time in the Arena District where businesses suffered without the NHL.

“Business had slowed down, just from general comments. And being down there New Year’s Eve ourselves, it was kind of quiet.”

Charles Giles, of Columbu,s and his wife, Amy, are partial season ticket holders. They’re both looking forward to Jackets’ games again and hockey labor peace for ten years.

“I think it’s terrible they’ve done this twice in seven years like they have. So I think it’s great that they can promise that far out,” Charles Giles said.

Amy Giles added, “I think that’s the key is that we don’t want to go through this again. And hopefully we won’t have to deal with this for a long time.”

The sticking point in the negotiations was the salary cap for the next season. It reportedly will be set at $64.3 million.

The NHL avoided the embarrassment of losing a second season due to a labor dispute. A lockout eight years ago that ushered in a salary-cap system to hockey for the first time wiped out the entire 2004-05 season the only time a North American sports league did so.

After several hours of waiting for discussions to resume for a third straight day, the conversations didn’t go well and had none of the momentum that existed Tuesday and Wednesday. Instead of closing in on a deal, the two sides seem further apart than ever.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says he is “disappointed beyond belief.”

Union chief Donald Fehr  says it doesn’t look like this will be resolved “in the immediate future.”

Today is the 83rd day of the NHL lockout.  Another round of games could be cancelled today. The league has already cancelled the NHL All Star Game which was slated to be played at Nationwide Arena.

The same group of negotiators returned for more talks before the NHL’s board of governors was scheduled to hold its pre-planned meeting. Talks continued last night until about midnight, and it was clear progress was made when deputy commissioner Bill Daly stood side by side with union special counsel Steve Fehr in a rare joint status report from both sides.

Negotiations lasted for nearly eight hours yesterday in a pair of sessions that included big and smaller groups. The sides reconvened this morning, taking advantage of a small window of time before the board of governors meeting that was scheduled for 11 a.m. The possibility existed that bargaining would resume following that get-together.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman had planned to hold a news conference after the board meeting, but that might be postponed or even canceled if negotiations are still ongoing.

The sides are trying to avoid another lost season. The NHL became the first North American professional sports league to cancel a full year because of a labor dispute back in 2005. The deal reached then was in place until this September, and the lockout was put into effect on Sept. 16 after that agreement expired.

The lockout reached its 81st day today.

While no details of what was discussed yesterday were released, the addition of new owners to the negotiating process and a group of 18 players – without Bettman and union executive director Donald Fehr in the room – helped move the process forward and create a sense of hope that there will be a hockey season, and maybe soon.

The respective leaders were again on the same floor where talks were taking place but remained removed from the discussions.

“We had a long day,” Steve Fehr said after yesterday’s talks. “We thought it was a constructive day. We had a good dialogue. In some ways I’d say it might be the best day we’ve had, which isn’t too overly optimistic of a picture. There is still a lot of work to do and a lot to be done.”

Daly echoed Fehr’s comments, and spoke well of the talks.

“I appreciate the efforts of the players,” Daly said. “Everybody is working hard. I think everybody wants to get a deal done, so that’s encouraging. We look forward to hopefully making more progress.”

The league made the announcement Friday, the 69th day of the NHL’s lockout of its players.

The new cancellations come as little surprise. The two sides had an unproductive negotiating session on Wednesday that produced no movement to break an impasse over splitting more than $3 billion in revenue and also player contracts.

A total of 422 regular-season games, more than 34 percent of the season, have now been lost.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly says losing the 2013 NHL All-Star Weekend in Columbus is “extremely disappointing.”

It might be the only taste of hockey for months.

There’s no telling when the NHL lockout will end, especially when neither the league nor the NHLPA has committed to face-to-face negotiations to end the labor unrest. There were no formal talks Sunday on the first day of the lockout, the league’s fourth shutdown since 1992, including a year-long dispute that forced the cancellation of the entire 2004-05 season when the league successfully held out for a salary cap.

And there are no formal talks planned.

A prolonged lockout would be especially problematic for Columbus, which is scheduled to host the mid-season All-Star game in January.

The league issued a statement to fans on its website that it was “committed to negotiating around the clock to reach a new CBA that is fair to the players and to the 30 NHL teams.”

The clock is ticking and there’s no new collective bargaining agreement in sight. The league could start to announce this week the cancellation of preseason games and there’s little chance training camps will open on time. The regular season is scheduled to begin Oct. 11, but that obviously is in peril.

Day 1 of the lockout could serve as a preview for the next several cold months: Empty rinks, empty talk.

The NHL’s Board of Governors on Monday voted for a massive realignment that shifts the league into four time zone-based conferences. That will cut in half the Blue Jackets’ number of trips to western Canada and California.

Blue Jackets ownership had wanted to move into the Eastern Conference to cut down on travel.

Columbus’ new conference will include Dallas, Detroit, Chicago, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis and Winnipeg.