NHL's top brass admit a big change is coming to the league.

A big change may finally be coming to the National Hockey League, one that just about every fan that I know has been begging to see for a very long time.

For as long as I can remember, hockey fans have been maligning the fact that the NHL plays out the Stanley Cup playoffs deep into the summer. All kinds of improvements have been suggested over the years, but for the very first time there has been a sign that the NHL may finally be listening.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly recently revealed that, due in part to the new collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and National Hockey League Players Association, that the league will consider getting the NHL regular season off to a much earlier start.

"Interestingly one of the things we agreed on with the Players Association in collective bargaining is extending the regular season by two games," said Daly on the 32 Thoughts podcast. "Which entails also a corresponding reduction in the duration of our training camps and should allow us to start the season earlier. So that we're not really extending the regular season or our overall season, it should actually get a little shorter over time. So we'll see how that works."

It was a huge announcement from Daly that seems to have flown under the radar for most, but it is a clear indication that fans could finally get what they want. Not only has Daly suggested that the regular season could finish a little earlier, but he also confirmed that it would start earlier as well. Daly was asked point blank if the league was considering changing the schedule in a way that would allow for a September start to the regular season, and he acknowledged that they were.

"We are, we are," said Daly with a smile audible in his voice.

Daly did acknowledge that there would still be challenges to overcome, including in season like this year's where the Olympic Games result in a major delay during the regular season, but there's no question that this is some of the best news hockey fans have received in quite some time.

What do you think of a potential move to a September start for the NHL regular season? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.