According to the CBC website, Ilya Kovalchuk is a free agent again being pursued by
the Devils after Richard Bloch rejected Kovalchuk's 17-year, $102 million dollar contract. The Devils stated that they respected Bloch's ruling but that they are still interested in signing Kovalchuk, and reports say he and the team have gone back to negotiating a contract.
The Devils released a statement saying "While we do not currently have a contract with Ilya Kovalchuk, discussions have resumed and we are hopeful that a contract will be reached that meets with the principles in arbitrator Bloch's award and the NHL's approval,"
Bloch sided with the NHL, who rejected the deal the same day Kovalchuk and the Devils signed the contract, saying that the Devils tried to circumvent the salary cap. In his ruling Bloch said"'This contract is intended to' or has the effect", of defeating or circumventing the salary cap provisions of the CBA(Collective Bargaining Agreement)."
Kovalchuk's deal was planned out so that the Devils would pay him $6 million in his first two seasons, $11.5 million the following five seasons, and then drop off to $10.5 million, $8.5 million,$6.5 million, and $3.5 million in single seasons before decreasing to $750,000 for 2021-2022 and $550,000 for the remaining six seasons, coming to an end in 2027.
The contract decreased the cap hit to a manageable $6 million a season by placing $95 million of the payment in the first ten years of the contract. Next season's cap is $59.4 million per team. The arbitrator also said that the contract would end when Kovalchuk was 44, far past retirement age for most players.
"The overall structure of this contract reflects not so much to the hope that Kovalchuk will be playing in those advanced years,but rather the expectation that he will not"- arbitrator Richard Bloch.
The NHLPA also released a statement, saying it was"dissapointed with the arbitrator's ruling to uphold the NHL's rejection of the contract between the New Jersey Devils and Ilya Kovalchuk. The NHLPA is currently reviewing the decision and will have no further comment at this time."
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly thanked Bloch for his ruling. "We want to thank arbitrator Bloch for his prompt resolution of a complex issue," Daly said. "His ruling is consistent with the league's view of the manner in which the collective bargaining agreement should deal with contracts that circumvent the salary cap."
I think that this situation will only get more and more complicated as it goes on. It will be interesting to see what happens. What do you think of this story?
No comments:
Post a Comment