The NHL has been its own worst enemy since before WWII and will never become a big time sports league unless it changes from its mentality (which appears to be a fear of becoming big time). I have a laundry list a mile long of decisions the NHL has made over the decades which have done nothing other than limit its potential which I will share at another time.
What I view as unconscionable is the contracts that teams have been throwing around to players this summer basically under the assumption that they would only be on the hook for ~70% of it once this lockout is settled. If the Minnesota Wild were truly able to offer Parise & Suter $100mm each, there should be no reason for this lockout. If they weren't, then there was a serious misrepresentation to the players when the contracts were offered.
I'm convinced that teams (who were under the cap) went into this off season thinking "offer them whatever they want, we'll only end up paying 70 cents on the dollar".