The fight over whether major-junior hockey players in this country should be paid some sort of wage has been argued in court for a couple of years now, but the question has been around much longer than that.
A landmark moment in the battle came last week in an Alberta court, when a judge ruled that the financial statements of Western Hockey League and Ontario Hockey League teams would be unsealed, as part of an attempt to have a class-action lawsuit brought by former WHL players certified.
The defence against paying players has always been that the teams could not afford it.