Ilya Kovalchuk Arbitration Will Have Impact on the Entire Hockey World
August 4th, 2010 by levinakl Leave a reply »The next few days will have a major impact on the future of Ilya Kovalchuk, the New Jersey Devils franchise, and likely the National Hockey League as a whole.
Depending on how arbitrator Richard Bloch decides, the 17-year, $102 million contract signed by Ilya Kovalchuk this past July 19th will either have to be accepted by the NHL, or it will be rejected and Kovalchuk will become an unrestricted free agent, which could even steer him to Russia and the KHL. In addition, the arbitrator and the NHL could impose penalties on both the Devils as a team and the agent/player team of Jay Grossman/Ilya Kovalchuk.
The main issue that needs to be decided by the system arbitrator is whether or not the contract violates the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) . The hotbed portion is specifically Section 26, which discusses circumvention of the salary cap. I do not believe Bloch is allowed to go by the spirit of the rule, or what he thinks a party may have intended. I believe he is forced to make his decision based on the document that was written.
If you look at the actual document, one clause stands out in Section 26.3(i) that states "A ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by levinakl
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