A tentative agreement has been reached between the NHL and the players' association, according to an ESPN.com report.

Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr stood side by side in the early hours of Sunday morning to announce there was a framework in place for a new CBA.

Although the deal still requires language clarification, legal fine-tuning and ratification from both sides, a verbal agreement has been reached on the major points.

"We still have a lot of work to do," Bettman said, "but it's good to be at this point."