Just when you thought the Ilya Kovalchuk saga was over... here we go again!
With the 17-year, $102 million deal between the New Jersey Devils and unrestricted free agent superstar Ilya Kovalchuk being thrown in the toilet, many Devils fans are wondering what Kovalchuk’s future will be with the club.
It appears as if the NHL rejected the contract on the premise that the contract itself circumvents the NHL’s salary cap.
The NHL wasn’t buying that Kovalchuk had any intention of fulfilling the final years of his contract. Rather, the NHL felt that either the New Jersey Devils would buyout the highly talented Russian or Kovalchuk would opt to retire.
The NHL believes that the Devils and Kovalchuk had some sort of agreement in place. If not, the optics of the deal were so poor that it would be impossible to convince others that the two sides were not in collusion.
Kovalchuk’s contract was developed in such a way that the final five years of the deal would see Kovalchuk earn a pathetic $550,000 in each of those years, which pales in comparison to the $11.5 million Kovalchuk would make in each of the five years from 201 ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Mark Ritter
Ilya Kovalchuk Deal Rejected By the NHL: What Now?
July 20th, 2010 by Mark Ritter Leave a reply »
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