lol - NHL rejects Kovalchuk contract

[NJDevils_30]

100% that the PA grieves on this. Kovy won't even have to ask...

When a contract follows the CBA and is rejected, it's going to get ugly.

 

[davnlaguna]

Hossa's deal was like eating grapes at the salad bar before paying for them. Kovy's deal was like sitting at the salad bar with a fork. It was like they were daring the league to do something. I am still surprised the did. I think Lou's press conference forced the league to take action. Dean Lombardi said today (before the news broke) that the Kings deal was 13 years at 80 mil. If that was a mistake or not I am not sure.

As far as proving that it was cap circumvention or that Kovy would not play until he is 44, that is not required. All they have to do is point to the pay and see if it is reasonable to expect Kovy to play for league minimum. If half the people on this board can see that it is cap circumvention an arbitrator could do the same.

 

[scottflyers88]

nobody thinks he will play while being paid that low. he turned down atlantas deal and wanted more than that.

 

[puckhead]

Ok, so you cut two years off even though there's no age max in the CBA and players are playing longer now.

Apparently no one plays past age 42 now. Oh, wait. lol

Lou will destroy bettman on this one. That I am certain of.

Hossa's deal was like eating grapes at the salad bar before paying for them. Kovy's deal was like sitting at the salad bar with a fork. It was like they were daring the league to do something. I am still surprised the did. I think Lou's press conference forced the league to take action. Dean Lombardi said today (before the news broke) that the Kings deal was 13 years at 80 mil. If that was a mistake or not I am not sure.

As far as proving that it was cap circumvention or that Kovy would not play until he is 44, that is not required. All they have to do is point to the pay and see if it is reasonable to expect Kovy to play for league minimum. If half the people on this board can see that it is cap circumvention an arbitrator could do the same.

yeah i would assume the main straw the broke the camels back was going from the highest paid player in the league to league minimum (less than 5% of the peak salary) in a very short order.

 

[Destroydacre]

yup ... received a TSN text message.
link is up now: NHL rejects Kovalchuk contract for salary cap circumvention



I look forward to seeing captain Lou vs. the weasel. however it plays out.
I AM glad that the NHL has actually drawn a line in the sand.
whether it was Kovalchuck or not doesn't really matter to me.

I am too, however I think this was the wrong time to do it. The CBA expires after this season, that was the time to amend this type of cap circumvention not now. New Jersey did nothing illegal and as several other people have stated, similar cap circumventing contracts have already been approved. The league left this loophole in the CBA when it was signed back in 2005, you can't punish one GM for taking advantage of it, while letting other GMs get away with it. This will not be pretty as it plays out.

 

[scottflyers88]

he is making 550k the last 5 years. yes certain things are legal although they are not stupid they know why jersey made this contract. i am guessing that there is something that says they can disapprove any contract. the hossa one was borderline. this one is blatent.

 

[Destroydacre]

he is making 550k the last 5 years. yes certain things are legal although they are not stupid they know why jersey made this contract. i am guessing that there is something that says they can disapprove any contract. the hossa one was borderline. this one is blatent.

I disagree. It may not be as extreme numbers-wise, but the intent is exactly the same. Bettman looks like he is picking favorites here. It's a bad position to be in for the commissioner of a league.

 

[scottflyers88]

550k over the last 5 years is a little much.

it is easy to avoid. instead of front loading contracts they should just make teams pay the player every year the same amount.

 

[puckhead]

it is easy to avoid. instead of front loading contracts they should just make teams pay the player every year the same amount.

that's going too far the other way.
there are a range of max/min or variability parameters that can still give GMs some flexibilty.

 

[Eddie_Shack]

I'm not against long term contracts, or even letting GMs try and bend the rules a bit. But they should make a rule that a multi-year deal can't carry a player past the age of 40. The Hossa and Zetterberg contracts are a little iffy, but it's conceivable that those two will be playing at that age. Guys like Yzerman, Recchi, Lidstrom, Bourque, Hasek, and others have shown you can still have some gas left in the tank after the big 4-0. This Kovalchuk deal is just too blatant though. I'm not in favor of anything too extreme, but they should stop this before it gets out of hand.

They should make the rule that if a player is under 35, his deal can't carry him over 40. Now the GMs can still play Contract Roulette and try to roll the dice on giant decade long contracts, but they can't throw on those ridiculous league minimum years on the end. At least to a point.

 

[h X c Chris]

You guys cant compare this contract to the other front loaded contracts. I mean you guys can try and, damnit you are TRYING! but realistically this contract goes to ridiculous extremes. 11.5 mil to 550k? That is just too drastic...and its not like it was 550k for a couple years, 5 years at 550k?

If this contract had gone through you know damn well that every team would be signing every player under 35 to a 20 year deal and the last 10 years being for 550k.

The Hossa contract peaked at 7.9mil and gradually dropped to 1mil. and that Hossa contract was teetering on being rejected.

Hossa's Contract:
CapGeek.com - NHL salary cap calculator, buyout calculator, free agents and more!

Kovy's contract:
CapGeek.com - NHL salary cap calculator, buyout calculator, free agents and more!

NJ can bitch and moan all they want about this rejection but the contract was asking for trouble, it wasnt subtle at all, and most likely wouldve caused another lockout. Id rather have pissed off fans, than lose another NHL season.

 

[Vadered]

I don't think that the league can really defend this. It appears to be legal according to the CBA, and that means that it's a legal contract. If it were the first one of it's kind, that'd be fine, but it isn't, and that means there's precedent for these types of contracts under said CBA. Unless there is an obscure clause in there somewhere that basically says "we can throw out contracts for whatever reason we damn well please," or unless there is some other way it violates the CBA, the league doesn't have a leg to stand on, legally.

 

[Vadered]

I think the best part of the contract is really the 7 year NMC followed by a 10 year NTC. It's like the Flyers are signing him!

 

[awaz]

personally i was hoping he'd end up back in atlanta.. i always like seeing guys get rented out and then returning to team they helped improve

as far as the cap circumventing goes.. i see no reason the NHL can ban this one and not similar deals.. prongers deal is circumventing the cap too, the flyers will just get punished by it later because they failed to properly circumvent, but the intent was there.. but from the looks of this deal, kovalchuk has no intention of playing the last 5 years of his contract, but legal is legal and i dont think bettman's got any legitimate argument, regardless of how good of a lawyer he is

 

[Bizzle McDizzle]

next CBA idea...
alllow teams to sign as long of a contract as they want, but break it into increments for the cap.
This one for example..
sign it, no problem, let the team an player do what they want.

but cap hits are a rolling 3 year (or rolling 5 year) maximum, regardless of max length of the contract.

So the first three years this cap hit would be the true ten mill. Then each year they average out that yeat and the next 2 (or 4) years to get that seasons cap hit.

 

[loki604]

Good for the NHL. On one hand, I kind of wanted to see this play out because I think NJ would have been screwed later on. But I would rather them put a stop to this before it gets out of hand.

And those of you arguing that all cap circumvention is the same are insane. Obviously, there are degrees of it. Adding one year at a million at the end of a player's contract that your pretty sure he won't play is cap circumvention, but it's stupid to argue that that's the same as adding five years at league minimum. And there is a huge difference between the ages of 42 and 44. Enough players are still playing at 40-42 for those ages to be arguable. But 44?

 

[Slimpikins]

I am too, however I think this was the wrong time to do it. The CBA expires after this season, that was the time to amend this type of cap circumvention not now. New Jersey did nothing illegal and as several other people have stated, similar cap circumventing contracts have already been approved. The league left this loophole in the CBA when it was signed back in 2005, you can't punish one GM for taking advantage of it, while letting other GMs get away with it. This will not be pretty as it plays out.

I agree that the time to address this should have been durring the new CBA talks. It looks bad to let some do this but not others. I can't think of a better way for Bettman to push Kovy to the KHL than let some have this type of contract but reject the talented Russians.

 

[Slimpikins]

NJ can bitch and moan all they want about this rejection but the contract was asking for trouble, it wasnt subtle at all, and most likely wouldve caused another lockout. Id rather have pissed off fans, than lose another NHL season.

No way. There is no way the NHL locks out again so soon. I know attendance came back well from the last one but that won't happen again so soon.

I know I would stop following the sport if they locked out again only six years later. If they don't take the sport seriously, I won't either.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

I havent read the entire thread but who else has their tin foil hat on for this one?

Lou Lamoriello was integral in constructing the salary cap cba as we know it. And as puckdaddy says ... "And interestingly enough, Gulitti points out that that New Jersey's VP of Hockey Ops, Steve Pellegrini, worked for the NHL as their "cap regulator," meaning that he understands everything there is to know about the CBA"

Devils management knows the ins and outs of the cap so why would they draw up a deal that they knew wouldnt pass with the league office. Was it just because other teams have done similar contracts and they thought they could get away with it?

or

was new jersey management never in favour of signing Kovi for that kind of money and were pressured by owner Jeff Vanderbeek who desperately needs a marquis name to put people in seats and potentially draw the attention of a certain russian billionaire who owns another current New Jersey based sports franchise and who may want to pony up and come in as a co-owner now that the team has a star russian player

so did Lamoriello sabotage the deal ?

Lamoriello said he "absolutely" rolled his eyes when the Islanders signed Rick DiPietro(notes) to a 15-year contract in 2006 and when Washington signed Alex Ovechkin(notes) to a 13-year contract in 2008. He also said he "absolutely" rolled his eyes about the Kovalchuk's contract terms.

So why would he sign Kovalchuk to such a deal?

"You'd have to speak to ownership about that," Lamoriello said. "The commitment that ownership has made here, this is a commitment and a decision they wanted to make for this type of a player and all I can do is say whether the player is a player that will fit into the team, can help the team and is not a risk as a player. As far as what the financial commitment is and that aspect of it, that was out of my hands."

 

[loki604]

I havent read the entire thread but who else has their tin foil hat on for this one?

Lou Lamoriello was integral in constructing the salary cap cba as we know it. And as puckdaddy says ... "And interestingly enough, Gulitti points out that that New Jersey's VP of Hockey Ops, Steve Pellegrini, worked for the NHL as their "cap regulator," meaning that he understands everything there is to know about the CBA"

Devils management knows the ins and outs of the cap so why would they draw up a deal that they knew wouldnt pass with the league office. Was it just because other teams have done similar contracts and they thought they could get away with it?

or

was new jersey management never in favour of signing Kovi for that kind of money and were pressured by owner Jeff Vanderbeek who desperately needs a marquis name to put people in seats and potentially draw the attention of a certain russian billionaire who owns another current New Jersey based sports franchise and who may want to pony up and come in as a co-owner now that the team has a star russian player

so did Lamoriello sabotage the deal ?

Lamoriello said he "absolutely" rolled his eyes when the Islanders signed Rick DiPietro(notes) to a 15-year contract in 2006 and when Washington signed Alex Ovechkin(notes) to a 13-year contract in 2008. He also said he "absolutely" rolled his eyes about the Kovalchuk's contract terms.

So why would he sign Kovalchuk to such a deal?

"You'd have to speak to ownership about that," Lamoriello said. "The commitment that ownership has made here, this is a commitment and a decision they wanted to make for this type of a player and all I can do is say whether the player is a player that will fit into the team, can help the team and is not a risk as a player. As far as what the financial commitment is and that aspect of it, that was out of my hands."

Intrigue...I like...