Analysis of the Ilya Kovalchuk 17-year, $102 million contract with for HockeyPrimeTime.com

Analysis: Kovy deal may stoke critics

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Written by Denis Gorman

Tuesday, July 20, 2010 18:01

It was a startling admission from a man who often says very little. Lou Lamoriello was encircled by a handful of reporters moments after Ilya Kovalchuk press conference had ended in Newark Tuesday afternoon. The fiscally conservative President and General Manger of the New Jersey Devils was fielding questions about the 17-year, $102 million contract that the franchise had given Kovalchuk. The stinger: With the current collective bargaining agreement expiring at the end of the 2012 season, is it possible that some of his brethren may point to the record-setting contract, and others like it, as a negative for the league’s long-term financial well-being. “I would say I might agree," Lamoriello said. "I might agree. But there is nothing that we have done wrong. This is within the rules. This is the CBA. There are precedents that have been sent. Because it’s legal, this is something that ownership felt comfortable doing.” Kovalchuk’s newly signed mega-pact, and those of Chicago’s Marian Hossa, Washington’s Alex Ovechkin and the New York Islanders’ Rick DiPietro, will certainly be a focus when the new CBA is negotiated. Kovalchuk will make $6 million dollars this season and next; he will earn $11.5 million in the four-season span between 2012-13 and 2016-17. He will make $10.5 million, $8.5 million, $6.5 million and $3.5 million in 2017-18 through 2020-21. The number decreased to $750,000 in 2021-22. He will make $550,000 in the final four years of the contract. All that averages out to a $6 million cap hit each year Kovalchuk plays for the Devils. The numbers alone are staggering. But what may engender more criticism from Lamoriello’s fellow owners are the no-movement and no-trade clauses written into the contract. Kovalchuk cannot be traded or sent to the minors in the first six years of the contract. He has a no-trade clause in the final nine years of the contract. What it also does is force Lamoriello’s hand to make another personnel move. According to capgeek.com, the Devils are $1.8 million over the $59.4 million salary cap. The CBA allows for a team to be up to 10 percent (or $5.94 million) over the cap during the summer, but not over the cap when the season starts. That and the impending long term negotiations with left wing Zach Parise, a restricted free agent after next season, almost certainly means that a member of last year’s team will be discarded. Dainius Zubrus, Jamie Langenbrunner — who was one of five Devils at the press conference, along with Martin Brodeur, Parise, Patrik Elias and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond — and Brian Rolston could be among those shopped or sent to the minors in an attempt to create cap room. That Rolston is due to make $5 million this season and next, and is 37 years old, could make a potential move difficult.

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