Kovalchuk's Deal Under Intense Review

The headline of the evening on Tuesday was that the NHL had rejected the 17-year, $102 million deal that Ilya Kovalchuk had signed with the New Jersey Devils. The reasons that were cited included being a post-retirement deal to artificially bring down the annual average value per season (or cap hit) for the Devils' own bookkeeping purposes. Well, that was kind of a no-brainer, especially since everyone has come to the same conclusion on a number of other deals.

Personally, I'm not a big believer in the headline and how it reads, since this story is long from finished. It should read, the NHL has started proceedings to disqualify the Kovalchuk deal. Without due process, this deal would be straight-away cancelled and the Devils would have to try and manage their cap hit without a contest. I don't think the NHLPA would mind fighting this deal on their player's behalf, especially with so many other deals that are similar.

I don't expect the Devils to refile this deal with the NHL under a watchful eye, rather they should be going after the league, via the NHLPA, to get what they want, since the guidelines of circumvention are still very grey.  The Devils want a manageable cap hit and Kovalchuk wants $100+ million.  I believe, once this ordeal is over with, the Devils and Kovalchuk will come out on top.

Furthermore, until there is an official decision and a change in the scope of this deal, be it officially cancelled by an arbitrator or changed by the Devils themselves, I am going to keep the Kovalchuk deal the same in my books, not like the Devils are going to try and make too many signings while they have so much cap space in limbo.