Gary Bettman and the NHL lose a major sponsor

"If we have to pay out lots of cash, two-thirds of which is going to come back to us, that may cause some stress," Bettman said. "And by the same token, if the players owe us more money than anybody imagined, the salary cap could well be flat or close to flat for the next five or six years, and players into the future will be repaying what we're owed."

«We view ourselves as both a supplier of best-in-class equipment to help the athlete and the partner, but also a partner that when we work together can make an impact,» Kearney said. «We're just trying to move sports and our partnerships forward in that fashion, taking a different lens on all the relationships that we currently have and that we're building in the future.»