Kovalchuk Chooses to Return to Jersey

The biggest prize of the free agent frenzy has finally been claimed, only 18 days after the markets opened to the league. Ilya Kovalchuk has reportedly signed a deal with the New Jersey Devils, close to the ones initially rumoured over a week ago, in the neighbourhood of 17 years and over $100 million.  The deal has been thought to be on the table for that same time frame, while Kovalchuk and the Los Angeles Kings were trying to work together on a deal that would suit both sides.  Once those talks broke down for the third or fourth time, the Devils have come away winners.

The early numbers, according to this tweet from Michael Russo of the Star Tribune in Minnesota, the Devils are looking at a cap hit of $6 million, on a very front-loaded deal.  This would give the Devils what they want, Kovalchuk at a more-than-reasonable cap hit and Kovalchuk would get his $102 million.

The 2001 1st overall selection has been a pretty good player in his eight NHL seasons, scoring 52 goals twice, scored 40+ goals four other times in his career.  In 2010, Kovalchuk scored 41 goals between Atlanta and New Jersey, keeping him in top end of the category.  He also had 44 assists, giving him 85 points on the year, ranking him 18th in pool scoring, 11th among forwards, likely making him a 1st round pick in most hockey pools.  In his 27 games with the Devils, he picked up 27 points, suggesting he had some pretty good chemistry with his new teammates and likely giving the Devils a decent return on their cap hit.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Ilya Kovalchuk	Andy Greene	Martin Brodeur
Zach Parise	Henrik Tallinder	Johan Hedberg
Tomas Zajac	Bryce Salvador
Jamie Langenbrunner	Anton Volchenkov
Patrik Elias	Colin White
Jason Arnott	Anssi Salmela
Brian Rolston
Dainius Zubrus
David Clarkson
Rod Pelley
Vladimir Zharkov
Pierre Letourneau-Leblond

With this Kovalchuk signing, the addition of Rod Pelley to the table and a number of other free agents already added, the Devils are now in cap trouble.  The 20 players on the table above come in with a cap hit of $60.9 million, a clear $1.5 million over the ceiling and they should still add a forward and defenseman to their list, just for the sake of some depth.  In theory, the Devils could go into battle with this line-up for opening night, but injuries would take their toll on the team.  I think it's time to start making up rumours about who the Devils would be dealing in order to fit all their new stars under the one roof.

The Devils made good on their deal with the Thrashers to pick up the superstar, keeping him from being a true rental player and signing him to a long-term deal. The question then becomes how long is too long and how many years should a team use to lower the average salary for a cap hit?  This deal will be allow Kovalchuk to be signed until he is 44 years old, which could be considered the latest a player should be signed for on a deal.  There are some long-term deals already on the books in the NHL, but Kovalchuk tops them all.  I haven't seen enough evidence to suggest that this contract is going to be any different than other long-term front-loaded deals, circumventing the cap, but the deal hasn't really been rubber-stamped yet... I guess if it doesn't go through, it'll be posted, but if and when it does, don't expect any changes here.