The final escrow number (basically the percentage of player salaries the players gave back to the NHL for league overspending) for last season has been made official and it's 12.9 per cent.
That means whatever the face value of a contract was for 2008-09, the player actually receives 12.9 per cent less than that.
But since the amount of escrow money withheld last season was around 18 per cent, the players will be getting a cheque cut, worth about five per cent of their salary. It's not a refund per se, since the money collected belonged to them in the first place.