If the NHL wants a battle, it is likely to get one with the Players Association over the league’s rejection of the Devils’ $102 million, 17-year contract with Ilya Kovalchuk.
For the first time under the current collective bargaining agreement, the NHL and the Players Association are expected to square off before an arbitrator over a rejected contract. First, however, they’ll have to settle on a “system arbitrator,” never having needed one before.
The league last night rejected the longest-ever player contract, which took 20 days to be signed, claiming that it circumvents the CBA. The league apparently does not believe Kovalchuk is going to play until age 44, when the contract would expire, and may contend that the final low-salary years of the deal are subterfuge to lower the average salary and cap hit of the entire package.
If the PA files for arbitration, Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello likely is going to have to stand by and watch the leaderless Players Association argue his case. The PA does not represent Lamoriello or the Devils, but is the only body eligible to file a dispute and demand arbitration on a rejected contract.
Though the PA lacks an executive director, it is fully set up to handle procedural issues with legal officers in place. It will have five business days, starting today, to file a grievance demanding that the contract be registered.
The league’s rejection of Kovalchuk’s contract could be regarded as the first shot across the bow in the lead-up to a third lockout in 2012. One thought is that if the NHL wants to limit length of deals, it would have to collectively bargain that issue, perhaps in a trade for the elimination of the escrow clause the players dislike so much.
Lamoriello was almost prophetic when he said yesterday afternoon that the sort of contract he negotiated with Kovalchuk might best be prohibited when the next CBA is drawn up.
Although there was no official explanation of the contract’s specific violations, the obvious suspect is Year 12 and beyond, when Kovalchuk’s salary drops from $3.5 million in Year 11 to $750,000 in Year 12 to $550,000 for each of the final five years of the deal.
Kovalchuk was to make $98.5 million over the first 11 years of the contract, an average of $8.9 million, then a total of just $3.5 million over the final six years, dropping the 17-year average to $6 million, a much more manageable cap hit.
Kovalchuk, 27, made a point at yesterday’s press conference to assure everyone he would be playing at age 44.
The Devils are allowed to re-work the contract to the satisfaction of the league, which may be difficult to do given the collision of the total salary and the cap hit. New Jersey hired the NHL’s cap specialist, Steve Pellegrini, to handle its cap issues after it had such trouble in the early years of this CBA.
In the past, the league permitted Alexander Ovechkin’s 13-year, $124 million deal with a cap hit of $9.5 million and the 15-year contract signed by Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro.
The league’s ruling cast a pall over all the excitement the Devils displayed in yesterday afternoon’s press conference.