Not so Fast

The things you could buy with $102 Million dollars. I bet Ilya already had some pretty big plans. Houses, cars, yacht's and a dream vacation home perhaps in Siberia. But it appears that Kovalchuk has been left out in the cold as the NHL today rejected his 17 year, 102 Million dollar contract with the New Jersey Devils. But don't get me wrong, this isn't a pity Ilya party. I am sure the high scoring winger will do just fine.

It is hard to ignore the fact today that the NHL has put its proverbial foot down on the front loaded contracts by squashing the mammoth deal handed out to Kovalchuk. Front loaded contracts are an easy way for teams to lock up star players and save cap room on them by having them play for less money at the end of the long contract.

Saving Cap Room 101

1) Offer a longer than necessary contract to a star you want to lock down for the long term...10 years is a good start.

2) Decide on the financial terms of the deal... Say 10 years, 73 Million.

3) The way the salary cap works in the NHL, the cap hit would be the average of the contract over the time, not what the player is paid per season. The example would have an avg cap hit of 7.3 Million per season.

4) Load the front portion of the contract with a majority of the salary so by the time player is older and less productive you are paying them peanuts. For the example, put the first $70 Million of salary in the first 7 years, and then spread the final 3Mil out over the remaining 3 years at 1Mil a year.

5)When the player's salary is down to 1Million a year, buy them out. Teams can buy players out for 2/3 of what the salary is for the current year. Then they can spread out the cap hit to double the length of the remaining years on the contract.

Example: 1 Million cap hit becomes $666,000 of a cap hit, but spread over 2 years. So in the example, when the player was bought out, the team would have a cap hit of essentially $333,000 over 6 years.

A bit confusing right? Not really sure how else to explain it, but these are the exact loopholes that GM's and cap guru's have been pulling in the NHL for years. There are multiple examples of this: Zetterberg, Hossa, Loungo, and even Savard to some extent have all received front loaded contracts. In all of these contracts, the players are going to be near the end of their prime, or should be well retired. In Kovalchuk's case, he is supposedly going to play until he is 44. That just will not happen and certainly is not the plan.

What is important to note here is the rumor that general manager Lou Lamoriello knew the NHL was going to reject the contract before it went through. Lou is one of, if not the most respected GM's in the game, and oddly enough, he was one of the GM's who helped shape how the current CBA is structured. Perhaps Lou went over the top with Kovalchuk's deal to point out the absurdity of other deals the NHL has allowed. Or maybe he was just testing the NHL's patience. Either way, the NHL set a precedent today by rejecting the contract which could send a ripple affect through the NHL and how Free Agents negotiate. This will certainly increase some of the tension as we move closer to a new CBA.

Below is a breakout of Kovalchuk's proposed contract.

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