**9:36 pm Tuesday: According to TSN and Twitter (of course) the NHL has rejected the structure of the Kovalchuk contract under the grounds of NHL Cap circumvention. ahem... I TOLDYOUSO!
It took Nineteen days into NHL free-agency for the biggest fish in the pond to bite on a hook. But the bigger question actually is -- were we all used as bait?
While listening to the Bill Watters show this afternoon on AM 640 Toronto, he had some choice things to say about Ilya Kovalchuk's agent, Jay Grossman. According to Mr. Watters, Grossman used the media to his best advantage and really only had one deal in place -- a deal with the Devil.
It seems, he feels the LA courtship was one that he largely promoted even though the Kings really weren't prepared to offer what New Jersey could. I am not sure of the accuracy of these allegations, but I do remember the reports of "LA is out" followed by "LA is back in" which sounded a little odd from a business standpoint.
Watters even went so far as to say that it was probably Grossman who prompted the Islanders into making a "due diligence" inquiry into his super-star client. I bristled when he call Garth Snow "Slushy."
So whether that is true or not, the saga is over and it was without a LeBronesque half-hour TV special. Rumor has it a Canadian outlet was attempting to put one together. While I'm not quite believing it, it may have been fun to pull TSN's Bob McKenzie out of vacation to host and Tweet at the same time. "Drumroll please? And the winner of the the Kovalchuk sweepstakes 2010 is: The New Jersey Devils."
The NHL has five days to ratify the offer that is reported as being -- BASICALLY INSANE.
2010-11: $6 million
2011-12: $6 million
2012-13: $11.5 million
2013-14: $11.5 million
2014-15: $11.5 million
2015-16: $11.5 million
2016-17: $11.5 million
2017-18: $10.5 million
2018-19: $8.5 million
2019-20: $6.5 million
2020-21: $3.5 Million
2021-22: $750,000
2022-23: $550,000
2023-24: $550,000
2024-25: $550,000
2025-26: $550,000
2026-27: $550,000
A front loaded contract that will take Kovalchuk all the way up to Lou Lamoriello's 85th birthday and is expected to be well under the league minimum the last five years. Also, should the salary cap go DOWN, the higher pay-out years will cash-strap the Devils possibly making it difficult to maintain a quality roster around their key ingredient who may or may not be as good as he is right now.
I have said it before, and I will say it again: I don't like extended contracts. While I may be in the minority, I feel that they are not beneficial in the long-run. I understand the desire to lock up a young, huge talent, to make him a franchise member of a team. However, that should be able to be done in shorter term deals; let's say nothing more than 7 or 8 years. (I say that full well knowing that a deal for Kyle Okposo will probably be in the 10 year range when it comes up.)
With Rick DiPietro's ground-breaking 15-year deal aside, the contracts that have come down recently make my head spin. Hossa, Zetterberg and Luongo all were given 12 year deals. Franzen inked an 11 year deal. But 17 years seems beyond extreme or necessary -- unless you are only trying to circumvent the salary cap.
Perhaps better player contracts can be written the way good commercial leases are written; five years with rolling additional terms in 2 - 5 year increments at established increase rates. That way, each party has an out should anything unexpected happen and dollar figures can be renegotiated.
While the Islanders are now out of the Kovalchuk fishing trip, that doesn't mean they don't still have their lines in the water. Do not be surprised if word comes of a quality defensemen taking a bite on Islander bait, especially as we get closer to the middle of August.
While I have been quite remiss in writing lately, there really hasn't been much to report. I do have a few things in the works and this
article at www.HockeyQuarerly.com took me DAYS to research. Check out their website. There is some quality reading there in these dog days of the off season.
** Thanks to PuckCentral.com for publishing the breakdown of the deal with the Devil(s).
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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