National Hockey League: NHL wins, Ilya Kovalchuk unrestricted free agent again
Extra Extra, Kovalchuk deal struck down – writer commits suicide.
Maybe some writer or analyst somewhere did commit suicide but probably not because of the endless Kovalchuk soap opera but that doesn’t mean fans, writers and commentators are not fed up already. Of course, there are the throngs of soap opera aficionados who continue to feed the Kovalchuk frenzy and so, here is another piece on Ilya Kovalchuk.
As everyone who has even a passing interest in the NHL knows that, the league had taken Kovalchuk and the New Jersey Devils to task regarding the heavily front-loaded, 17 year Kovalchuk deal. The Arbitrator has now ruled that the contract was indeed designed to circumvent the salary cap and the NHL was right in not acknowledging it.
The Kovalchuk deal paid the Russian almost all of his $102 million dollar salary in the first 11 years of his 17 year contract. For the rest of his tenure as a Devil Kovalchuk would have been paid peanuts. Kovalchuk wouldn’t have played in those final years. What that means is that the Devils tried to spread Kovalchuk’s cap hit across 17 years, in effect circumventing the $59.4 million NHL salary cap.
This wasn’t the first contract that circumvents the salary cap but it might just be the grandest of them all and the last. The NHL has put its foot down. A few years and many high profile salary cap circumvention deals later, they won’t stand for that sort of thing anymore. Kovalchuk would have to be signed again.
The Arbitrator, Richard Bloch, was considerate enough in his ruling against them to state that in his opinion, neither the Devils nor Kovalchuk acted in bad faith. That’s some good news for both because they might have escaped possible penalties that many thought would be placed on them if the arbitrator ruled against them. The league could still fine both parties. The fine would count against the Devils’ salary cap. What the league would do now remains to be seen.
Richard Bloch also acknowledged the possibility that Kovalchuk could have played into his 40s but cited statistics that showed it was unlikely. “It is exceedingly rare. Only one player in the league (Chris Chelios) has played past 43 and, over the past 20 years, only six of some 3,400 players have played to 42.”
The race is on again and the ball could roll in any direction. After all, Kovalchuk is an unrestricted free agent. All of his earlier love affairs and one night stands could be rekindled. The Los Angeles Kings and the Atlanta Thrashers were the closest to getting their hands on Kovalchuk and there is nothing that suggests they wouldn’t try their luck again. In addition, the Russian Kontinental Hockey League might make a play for him again. The game has changed a bit since then. It’s obvious that no team wants the kind of cap hit that comes with signing Kovalchuk, so it’s very likely that he might tone it down and maybe King Kovalchuk might ascend to the Los Angeles’ throne.
They’d have to beat the Devils though and the Devils are already renegotiating a contract. They probably had a contingency contract written up as soon as the case was taken to arbitration. If that is so, it probably won’t be too long before the Devils and Kovalchuk reach a deal again, that is if the two sides can agree on the terms.
Previously the Devils would have incurred an annual $6 million cap hit. If they wish to resign Kovalchuk, they would have to cut a few years off the top. Kovalchuk would have been 44 when the deal expires. To get past the NHL radar a new deal would to cut at least 3 years and that would bring the cap hit to a stomach turning $7.3 million. The Devils might succeed in signing Kovalchuk for a few million less than what his previous contract was worth but the cap hit in any event would be quite severe.
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