Ice Hockey News: Kovalchuk’s deal with New Jersey Devils final- NHL and CBA decide upon new contract rules
It’s been a time long coming but the wait was just worth it. For the next 15 years and a $100 million, Ilya Kovalchuk would be with the New Jersey Devils from now on. He was a devil before too but then the NHL said ‘not so fast.’
The league was looking for a way to clamp down on the heavily front-loaded contracts that have started to become a regular feature at the NHL but Kovalchuk deal stood out even amongst those with a 17-year contract.
Earlier, his first deal was struck down and league played hardball with the contract. There were rumors that terms of a previous contract thought up by the Devils were also rejected. Finally, the league with Gary Bettman at the helm simply outplayed the leaderless players’ association and the contract was approved with plenty of fine print.
Reports also surfaced that the league had presented the players’ association with conditions of its own along with a deadline. It threatened that unless the association acquiesced to those conditions, the league would not only reject the final 15-year contract but also aggressively pursue the Marian Hossa, Marc Savard, Chris Pronger and Roberto Luongo contracts that the league has been lately looking into.
According to the final deal reached between league and association, new rules would apply to all long term contracts, long term in the sense that they are for more than 5 years. Also, the salary cap for future contracts that go into the 40s would be calculated for only until the year the player turns 40. This would give a greater weight to the years with the highest salary.
These changes would have raised the cap hit for Kovalchuk’s previously rejected contract from $6 million to $7.88 million. The 27-year-old’s cap hit would have been calculated for the period until he was 40. But Kovalchuk’s deal hasn’t been approved under the new terms that are effective from 4th September. Instead, his cap hit would be calculated for the full 15 years of the contract, until he turns 42.
This means that, although, the cap hit Devils would be facing this time is just $6.67 million, but any similar future contracts would cost them over $7.5 million. However, in every conceivable way this episode was an unapologetic victory for the league. The NHL has somehow managed to rewrite the CBA on the go. The players’ association was forced into surrender but that is still good news for the game, as there was this serious possibility of another lockout year if the two sides hadn’t come to an agreement.
The NHLPA did try to do a little face-saving all through the mess. “We are pleased to finalize an agreement which ends the league's circumvention investigations and also establishes rules on long-term contracts that will provide players, their certified agents and general managers, clarity for the negotiation of new contracts,” said Ronald Lee, associate counsel for the NHLPA. He added that turning the page on this episode would benefit all parties.
What all parties? It certainly benefits the league and also saves it in a way. Had the league rejected the contract and continued its investigation into the other deals or rejected them too, the next collective bargaining agreement would have resembled a death match more than negotiations. The NHLPA has been suffering defeat after defeat since the 2004-2005 lockout. The association had refused to accept a salary cap but eventually threw up their arms in a very French sort of way and accepted the league’s demands.
It could be argued that the association has been plagued by the lack of leadership. But that could be changing with the arrival of Donald Fehr. If he is appointed the new boss, which he most likely would be, then the association wouldn’t be quite as easy to bully because Fehr has a reputation for being a fierce, even stubborn negotiator.
It appears as if the NHL Commissioner has been wise to take an aggressive approach towards the salary cap issues before Fehr officially takes over. However, the CBA is still to be negotiated and the NHLPA has a score to settle. Those negotiations wouldn’t go as easily in Bettman’s favor.
But until then, the Devils have a star on their roster in the form of Kovalchuk while the other ‘questionable’ contracts are also in the clear so far.
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