By Helene Elliott, Los Angeles Times

The NHL and the players' association have agreed in principle on a new collective bargaining agreement that will feature a hard salary cap linked to 54 percent of league revenue, a 24 percent rollback of existing contracts and qualifying offers, and a provision that will limit the salary of any player to 20 percent of the team cap figure in any year, sources said Wednesday.

If the deal is approved by both sides, the 2005-06 NHL season could begin in early or mid-October.

The NHL, which became the first major pro sports league to lose an entire season to a labor dispute, will become the last of the major North American leagues to adopt salary controls. Negotiators are estimating revenues will be $1.8 billion next season, down from $2.1 billion in 2002-03. The salary cap will be $37 million and won't include medical and dental benefits and pension payments. The floor will be about $24 million.

Players rejected a proposed $42.5 million cap before Commissioner Gary Bettman canceled the 2004-05 season.

The new labor agreement will allow players to represent their homelands at the Turin Olympics in February, and the NHL will take an 18-day break to accommodate players' participation in the Olympics. The All-Star Game will be dropped next season, mollifying owners who opposed repeated interruptions to the season.

The agreement will be presented to the 10-member NHL executive committee in New York on Monday, and the Board of Governors is expected to rubber-stamp it late next week.

Players will debate and vote at a meeting that could be contentious; if they approve, a 10-day period will begin for teams to sign players they drafted in 2003 and other players on their reserve lists.

The collective bargaining agreement has no luxury tax but addresses revenue sharing through a complex formula under which the top 10 revenue-earning teams will give a percentage of their revenue to small-market teams at the conclusion of each season.

Salary arbitration will be conducted ``baseball style,'' with each side presenting a figure and the arbitrator obligated to pick one figure or the other. Provisions will allow teams to walk away from a specified number of awards.

The minimum age to qualify for unrestricted free agency will be 31 in the first year of the deal, 30 the following year and 28 for the remaining four years. Also, earnings will be limited for entry-level players. They will be subject to salary limits for their first four seasons instead of three, as in the old agreement, and their maximum earnings will be $850,000.

The largest unresolved issue, a source said, is the disposition of contracts for the 2004-05 season. The NHLPA wants obligations for the 2004-05 season to be respected, and the NHL opposes that but might yield, a source said.