This just doesn’t end, does it? It looks like all of the drama surrounding Ilya Kovalchuck’s massive $102 million contract is back for another season, making this one of the more tumultuous off-seasons ever.
In case you haven’t heard, heard an independent arbitrator has ruled in the NHL’s favour and has voided Kovalchuck’s insane contract for cap circumvention. As a I said a few weeks ago, it’s about time that the NHL stepped in on these contracts. I can’t say that I’m particularly surprised or stunned by the news, but what shocks me is the fact that the league has said that they will be looking into other, already registered contracts, namely those of Roberto Luongo, Marc Savard, Marian Hossa, and Chris Pronger. This my friends, has the potential to get ugly, very, very, ugly.
All four of those contracts (as well as those of Vincent LeCavalier, Henrik Zetterberg, and Johan Franzen) are most certainly attempts to circumvent the salary cap. There really is no way around it. I mean, Luongo’s contract will pay him $10 million dollars next season and go all the way down to $1 million for the final two years of his deal, when he will be in his early forties. Similar math takes place in all of those contracts, with Savard and Pronger’s deals being the worse offenders, as the value in the later years is only $525, 000 per year, which will probably be below the league minimum and the two players will most certainly have long since retired by then.
The NHL may end up voided these four contracts, which would certainly cause quite a stir, especially in Hossa’s case, given that he has already played one year of that contract, while the others don’t kick in until the start of the season. Now I don’t think that the league can void contracts that have already been registered, but I think that this is all for posturing. They want these crazy long-term contracts to be a part of the next Collective Bargaining Agreement, and are planning on using this to make their stance stronger in the next round of talks. The public seems to be on the side of the league here, but that as always can change.
So what do I think will happen? Kovalchuk will rework a deal with the Devils for less years. He was apparently offered a 10 year, $80 million deal, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see something like that come on the table. There is the chance that he goes to LA for a similar deal, but if he really wanted to go there, then he probably would have by now. I doubt all of a sudden that any team will swoop in with an offer for him.
As for the others? They should stay as is. The line has been drawn in the sand, and it seems to be at the Hossa and Luongo deals. That’s as far as the league will allow this idiocy to continue. I don’t think that any team (or player) will be gutsy enough to try anything like this again. What will be interesting though, is that if some time decides to sign the next big star on their way to free agency to a similar deal that these two players have. That’s when things will really start to get ugly. Or uglier rather.
In my last post on this I said “Hopefully, the drama will end then, but I’m not too hopeful.”
Somedays I hate being right.
Until next time,
G
Tags: Free Agency, Hockey
