NEW YORK -- Leaders of the National Hockey League players' union Wednesday accepted the clubs owners' latest contract offer, ending the 103-day lockout and saving the North American ice hockey season.


"We're happy that hockey is hopefully going be played very soon," NHL Players' Association president Mike Gartner said in making the announcement outside the union's Toronto office.


Gartner said a ratification vote on the six-year agreement still must be held among the union's approximately 700 members and that no practices would begin until the ratification was complete.


No firm date was announced for when the season would start, but both sides said it would be late next week, possibly as early as Jan. 19.


Bob Corkum, player representative for the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, said he believed it would a 48-game season with four full playoff rounds. The NHL normally plays an 84-game schedule.


Negotiators have until noon Friday to finalize all the details of the contract, said Glenn Sather, general manager of the Edmonton Oilers. Training camps could not open until then, he said.


"We thought it was a good deal," Corkum said from California.


Union leader Bob Goodenow and the executive committee have recommended that the players accept the agreement and they will vote on it by secret ballot over the next day and a half, said Boston Bruins assistant player representative Ted Donato.


The announcement came a day after a marathon session in New York of hard bargaining, proposals, counter-proposals and intense conference calls, with free agency the last major obstacle.


"Are we happy about the scars that have been created for the game of hockey?" Gartner asked. "Are we happy about losing millions of dollars? Are we happy that the relations between owners and players have been severely hindered?


"No, we're not happy about that. But we're happy that hockey is hopefully going to be played very soon."


The lockout began over the owners' demand for a cap on players' salaries, but in the end, free agency was by far the most contentious issue.


The owners did not want players to become unrestricted free agents until after they turned 32 years old, but the players wanted it at 30. The contract that owners sent to players offered free agency at 32 in the first three years and at 31 in the last three. Because either side has the right to scrap the agreement after the 1997-98 season, there might be only one year in which 31-year-olds have complete freedom.


Other key components of the contract:


?Three salary arbitration cases in each two-year period that clubs can reject if the players receive awards of at least $550,000. Clubs can reject no more than two in any one year.


?An $850,000 salary cap for first-round draft picks, increasing annually.


?A draft for 19-year-olds, with 18-year-olds having the option to get in.


The agreement did not include any retroactive pay for the players who have been locked out since Oct. 1.


"I still have mixed feelings," Corkum said. "A lot of guys will be hurt. At the same time something had to be done. We didn't think it was worth missing a season for it. We can live with it."


"I don't think that we compromised," he said. "Now we're playing hockey."