According to TSN, the NHL will approve the revised contract between free agent superstar Ilya Kovalchuk and the New Jersey Devils. The original (and unprecedented) 17-year contract that the league rejected is now a 15-year deal worth $100 million. Ironically, Kovy will have a $6.66 million cap hit. The league has been scrambling in the last month trying to figure out how to handle the ridiculous contract, as they didn’t outright reject similarly designed contracts for players like Chicago Blackhawks forward Marion Hossa and Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger that tack on extra years to reduce salary cap hits.
The NHL has decided to resolve this issue by accepting all previous contracts that abused the CBA loophole while creating two new amendments that will eliminate said loophole. The first amendment revises a player’s cap hit as the average salary the player receives before he turns 40 over the years remaining until he turns 40. The second amendment states that for the years between age 36 and 40, the annual salary that acts towards the cap hit may be less than $1 million in real dollars, but will count as $1 million for the sake of calculating the cap.
This is refreshing news. As weird as the new rules sound, they provide framework moving forward so the league doesn’t find itself being embarrassed in front of fans, players, and competitive leagues in the future. It’s also nice to be assured that Pronger isn’t going anywhere. TSN actually computed Pronger’s contract if it had fallen under the new amendment rules. That manageable $4.92 million would become $6.88 million.
It will be interesting to see how the Flyers manage the contracts for their free agents next offseason. Eliminating the loopholes on the CBA strikes any chance of signing both Jeff Carter and Claude Giroux without moving another big piece of the roster.
