Playoffs went, the summer went and readers didn't hear much from me less a few predictions here and there. Well today I got home and decided I can't hold my tongue anymore. It's time someone got mad about the Kovalchuk signing.

I'll start out by giving thumbs up to Kovalchuk simply for taking his time, weighing his options and picking the future he thought was best. I feel that shows some character for Ilya, rather than just taking the first big cheque on July 1st and signing. But sadly, that's the last nice thing I'll say in this piece.

The Devils signed Kovalchuk, officially, to a 17 year contract worth $102 million. Normally, I really would not care but what people are not realizing is that this is not a typical, sell the farm for one player contract. This, in my mind, is a dirty trick that should be against the rules under the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement).

Let me set it up for you financially. Now Kovalchuk is easily a 7-10M guy. Clearly in free agency he could easily get 10M. However, the main team that wanted him, New Jersery, did not have the room. Especially with two new signings and having to re-sign Parise next year. So what do they do?

Instead of trading cap room or simply passing on the player, they manipulated the contract to make it work. I'll try and explain this so even the simplest person can understand.

Over 17 years, Kovalchuk's annual salary goes like this

Year 1

6M      6M  11.5M  11.5M  11.5M    11.5M   11.5M    10.5M   8.5M 6.5M   3.5M  0.75M    0.55M  0.55M   0.55M  0.55M   0.55M(Year 17)

What makes this a should-be illegal contract simply is the length. The devils could only afford roughly 6M a year in cap for Kovalchuk. In order to make his annual cap-hit 6M which it is now they simply added 6-7 years with barely no salary knowing he will retire by then.

An average NHLer retires between the ages of 35-40, almost all retire after age 38. Kovalchuk will be 39 when he begins to be paid less than 1M salary. The Devils and Ilya know that he will retire around 37-39, knowing this they simply added these extra years on the contract so the annual cap hit would be 6M instead of 8.9M which it would have been without these extra years.

Basically this opens the door for any team to start doing this more and more which is absolutely ridiculous and could get well out of hand. I really have a hard time believing that next to no one has caught on to this yet. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. This destroys the integrity and the whole idea of a salary cap.

Have 2M cap room but want Gretzky? Well easy, give him what he wants than because he's older you just add on years at the league minimum knowing he'll be retired by then. Let's try this out, I want Gretzky for 3 years but only have 2M cap room....

Year 1

10M    10M    0.5M   0.5M   0.5M   0.5M   0.5M   0.5M   0.5M  0.5M   0.5M   0.5M   0.5M   0.5M   0.5M   0.5M   0.5M   0.5M   0.5M   0.5M(Year 18)

Perfect! The annual cap hit is 2M and Gretzky gets his 10M a year, everybody wins!

UPDATE: The NHL has stepped in and rejected this contract. I am a happy camper.

In the end it's a game of technicalities. This is merely border-line and not illegal under any CBA rule. It's a question of interpretation. Over the past few years things such as this have come up more and more and it seems that very soon the integrity of the entire game could be in question. It's up to the NHL or NHLPA to step in before things start to get out of hand. If Ilya plays until he is 44 like his contract says I will be a very surprised writer and will gladly forget I ever brought this up. Until then, remember, take care of yourself and each other. Cheers!

Written by :

Matt Reed