Ilya Kovalchuk’s New Contract and How It Hurts the NHL
The National Hockey League should be ashamed of itself. Their poorly organized collective bargaining agreement may have worked in the early post-lockout days, but now team owners and general managers have begun to shamelessly exploit its flaws to circumvent the NHL’s salary cap restrictions.
Ilya Kovalchuk’s New Contract and How It Hurts the NHL
The most grievous offence now belongs to the New Jersey Devils due to their sketchy re-signing of star winger Ilya Kovalchuk. On Monday, it was announced that Kovalchuk and the Devils had reached a deal that was worth over $100 million for 17 years. This means that the 27-year-old Kovalchuk is under contract to New Jersey until he turns 44.
Kovalchuk is definitely the type of player a team would be fortunate to land for a long-term contract. The Russian wing is a consistent 80-point scorer, having averaged that since 2003-04. Last season, after being traded from the Nashville Predators, Kovalchuk averaged a point per game during his 27 regular season games with New Jersey. He then also put up six points in five playoff appearances.
The reason the contract is so deviant is that the Devils have absolutely no intention of keeping Kovalchuk for 17 years. Realistically, they do want him for ten or so seasons, but the deal is just a malicious way to bypass the salary cap.
The current salary cap policy of the NHL is that a team must have a contractual roster of at least $40,800,000 and no more than $56,800,000. Unfortunately, the system is faulty. For any given season, a team’s salary cap hit is the average salary of every roster player. In the Ilya Kovalchuk case, this means that if he is paid $100 million over 17 years, the Devils will be docked around $6 million from the salary cap yearly.
However, the turn comes in how Kovalchuk’s deal is structured. The contract is heavily front-loaded, which essentially lets the Devils cheat the salary cap restrictions. Kovalchuk understands that realistically, he will be peaking within the next five years and that most players with his fast-paced attacking approach are out of the NHL by 40. Kovalchuk also wanted a huge payout for his immense talents.
His deal with the Devils will pay him $6 million for the next season. It then jumps to $11.5 million for the five seasons from 2012 through 2017. As Kovalchuk’s age rises, the contract then declines sharply. He would only get $10.5 million in 2017-18, $8.5 million in 2018-19, $6.5 million in 2019-20, and $3.5 million in 2020-21. The contract then bottoms out by dropping to a mere $750,000 in 2021-22 and $550,000 for the remaining five seasons.
So while the Devils will be paying Kovalchuk $11.5 million dollars, their salary cap will only be hit with $6 million. Kovalchukl will almost certainly retire by the time the contract drop below the millions, and the Devils would no longer have to pay him. This scam allows them to have a star player while bolstering their roster even further since their salary cap hits are artificially low. It defeats the purpose of the salary cap and allows teams to cheat their way into New York Yankees-like spending.
This isn’t the first case of such a contract. The Philadelphia Flyers’ veteran defenseman Chris Pronger has a deal that is 5 years at $7 million per followed by 2 years at $500,000. However, the Kovalchuk deal is by far the most blatant manipulation of the salary cap ever seen.
The NHL should realize the exploitation that is now becoming a problem. If this is unchecked teams will sign players to heavily front-laden deals all the time to pay them a lot of money without putting a hurt on the salary cap. Teams’ salary caps should be based on current year salaries rather than averages. Until then, hockey’s integrity is severely at risk.
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