Although a deal has been reached between the NHL and the Players Association, Edmontonians are not impressed.
Fans tell CTV News they are upset that the deal took 113 days.
“I'm a season ticket holder for the Oilers but as far as I'm concerned I wouldn't have been upset if they stayed out the whole year just because of what they've put all the fans through,” Evan Macneil said.
I've been watching a lot of NFL this year, I kinda got into that to replace the hockey,” Brayden Proctor explained, “Once those playoffs wrap up I'll probably get a bit more back into hockey.”
Others said they were happy to have hockey back.
“I miss the hockey so I'm kinda looking forward to watching the games again,” Dennis Houle said.
Business owners are also happy to have the NHL back.
“I think especially for the first couple of weeks you'll get people excited to see the games back and excited to see the Oilers back in town,” The Canadian Brewhouse manager, Alex Dunn, told CTV News.
“It's gonna be great and I think it'll help us big time.”
Many players took to social media to respond to the news.
Taylor Hall tweeted that he was excited to get back to Edmonton.
Jordan Eberle also tweeted. “Thanks to all the fans who stayed patient and especially the coaches and boys of the OKC Barons,” he wrote.
Sam Gagner tweeted his response, “Best news I could have ever hoped for. So excited to get back to Edmonton and play in front of the fans at Rexall.”
In response to an online poll for CTV Edmonton 44 per cent of respondents said they would not be attending any games this season.
Forty-five per cent said they didn’t’ care about hockey and 11 per cent said they had missed the sport.
With files from Amanda Anderson
