Kovalchuk Contract Rejected

Shades of gray like I said.
Pick the first deal you think fits the bill of shady. The first one that you get a little whiff from.
Can you prove to an arbitrator that the participants “intended to” or “had the effect of” circumventing the cap? Intent would be very hard to prove; the effect has more wiggle room but the first one that smells funny to you and me is still probably not going to stink enough to win in arbitration.
Bring in this $100 million plus bucket of fish heads though, and at some point the stink is convincing.

If Kovy at 44, why not Semin at 46….48….65 next year?

The Blackhawks were pretty stacked without Hossa, but having him put them over the top. Do you really think the Devils are so close that having illyeah would have put them over. They had him last year, didn’t win, and getting him this year would have cost more talent. Devils should be glad this was rejected because it was fucking retarded from the word go.

The other contracts were screwy too. Everyone thought so at the time, but that doesn’t make it okay to let another one slide. You are suppose to honor the intent of the contract. I believe the wording to that is even in the contract. At some point you need to put your foot down. Say enough is enough. The others crossed the line, but this one not only crossed but climbed a mountain as well. Maybe it was just a little hill, but point is the league said enough. THIS is the line and no more.

Rather than faulting the league for finally standing up and doing something bout these contracts, we should be applauding them and encouraging them to do it more often.

like a Blues Scott Stevens Jersey……..

My argument isn’t so much that he won’t be playing at 44, though I don’t think he will, but that if he really thought he would be and was signing a 17-year-contract with that idea in mind, why would he set it up so that he’d only be playing for the league minimum at that point? He could instead do a deal that stopped at the point that he goes to the league minimum. At that point if he’s good enough, he could get a deal and do no worse than the league minimum (and keep in mind, that’s the minimum now, not the minimum then, which will probably be higher). The only reason to structure it this way is to circumvent the cap. Circumventing the cap is against the rules.

I already gave my opinion on the other deals. I think the NHL did express some dissatisfaction at those but felt like it would be tough to go to an arbitrator. So when one comes along that they think they can get an arbitrator to see their way on, they should pass on it since they have let some others go that weren’t as bad? As I said, if that’s your argument, then it is a slippery slope. What about a deal for 20 years then? 25? 30? Silly, right? Well, if you say that, then that’s saying there is a point when the NHL should step in even now that they have allowed some. Just a matter of where that should be. I can see it being here. Even if it should have been a little earlier, it certainly shouldn’t be later, when the deal will be more extreme, and naysayers will have one more contract (Kovy’s) to say “well you didn’t say anything then.”

The other teams nudged at the cap, then nudged a bit more, then the Devils broke on through and splashed too big.

Everyone is being held to the same rule, but like I said, the world isn’t black and white, so you’ve got to interpret those rules, and get the arbiter to come down on your side. Things like the spirit of the contract, the intent of the parties, and the effect, regardless of intent matter, and all of those are huge gray areas, areas these other teams took advantage of with those contracts. Kovy and the Devils came late to the party after the host was already starting to tire of the shenanigans, and he ate all the food and drank the last beer and then puked on the rug.

You can argue about whether they should have stepped in earlier, but I don’t see how now letting this one go helps the situation, it just extends that argument again and again and again.

Putting it off until after the next CBA is not a minor thing, these contracts will be locked in at that point and if this doozie was allowed it wouldn’t be the last rammed through before the new CBA. Real damage, long-term damage, can come from looking the other way as things get worse and worse, just because they looked the other way when things weren’t so bad.

You’re like the frog in the slowly boiling water saying “Gee, it’s getting a little hot, but it’s not that much hotter than it was a minute ago, I’ll just stick it out.”

Not to imply that you haven’t, but have you looked around at the other sites to see what they are saying? Jewels from the Crown, Behind the Net, From the Rink? They all have great analysis of why Kovy’s should be rejected. Maybe that will help you see why his is so far off the mark from others.