TORONTO - Now that NHL players have overwhelmingly approved a labor deal to end the lockout that canceled last season, one small obstacle stands in the way of getting back in business.

The league's 30 owners still must approve the deal Friday - but that's all but certain.

A majority of players supported the six-year agreement in Thursday's balloting, with 464 of 532 (87 percent) voting in favor of it.

"It's a wonderful agreement for the players, a wonderful agreement for the game and a wonderful agreement for our fans," commissioner Gary Bettman said. "It's the type of agreement that we think a professional sports league like ours can thrive under for everyone's benefit because we are true economic partners."

Approval by league executives today will forge labor peace at last to the league, which has lost one season already, and will turn the focus back to the ice.

"I am optimistic that we will bring this promptly to a successful conclusion so that we can go together and get this game, and the attention on this game, back where it belongs," Bettman said.

Talk will immediately shift from debates over money, salary caps and escrow to a discussion of how good Sidney Crosby will make his new team next season.

Still widely unknown in the United States, Crosby is a 17-year-old Canadian juniors phenom who will likely be the first player taken in a makeshift NHL draft later this month in Ottawa.

In an unprecedented lottery today, every team has a shot to land him when a backdoor ping pong ball selection is held in New York. Teams that were weaker in recent years will have as many as three ping pong balls in the hopper.

The draft order will be announced in a televised program, and Crosby's first NHL news conference will take place an hour later.

That will be the precursor to a frenzy of free-agent player movement starting Saturday. And the flurry of signings won't really calm down until training camps open in September.

Some teams have only a handful of players under contract, and many big-name stars will soon go free. Beginning Saturday, teams will have six days to buy out players to make payrolls more cap friendly.

"I can't wait to find out who is on what team," New Jersey forward John Madden said Thursday. "Hockey is going to be fun again."

Next season's schedule is also expected to be announced soon, featuring a full slate of games - including more intradivisonal and intraconference games than before.

Another order of business Friday is the approval of rules modifications that the league hopes will free up play and increase offense. Widening the blue lines, taking out the red line, and cutting down big goalie pads are all possible.

Bettman and league chief legal officer Bill Daly joined union adversaries Bob Goodenow and Ted Saskin at a table Thursday shortly after the deal they struck last week was ratified.

Neither man from the league side gloated or claimed victory in the fight that cost the NHL a full season without hockey. But it was clear Bettman felt satisfaction, though he said no personal animosity existed between him and Goodenow.

"I have great confidence in our game, I have great confidence in the people associated with our game and most importantly I have great faith and confidence in our fans," Bettman said. "We will come back strongly and I believe you will see that this agreement will have been a very effective and important catalyst in bringing us forward in ways we couldn't have without the right structure."

Bettman vowed that clubs would have "cost certainty" - a hard salary cap tied to league revenues. Goodenow promised that he would never agree to either. But when the deal was signed, he was forced to accept both.

"Players care about the game, we love the game; it's our livelihood," union president Trevor Linden said. "So, it's either try to find something that is acceptable, or we're looking at another year of sitting in the same situation.

"That is ultimately what led to a bridge in the gap."