Ilya Kovalchuk is not a man who's afraid to make bold decisions.
In a stunning development, the New Jersey Devils announced on Thursday that their most talented and highest-paid player would be retiring from the NHL at age 30, the prime of his career, all while forfeiting the $77 million still remaining on his contract over the next 12 years.
Kovalchuk's decision is a perplexing one. Walking away from an enormous guaranteed salary while in the prime of your career in the world's best hockey league, Who does that?
Abandoning $77 million in guaranteed money would be a crazy decision for anyone to make whether you are a normal fan or a famous athlete. If Kovalchuk wanted to maximize his earnings with this contract, he would have retired after the 2017-18 season when the salary in the deal drops from $10 million to $7 million. Starting in 2020, the salary plummets to $1 million.
As the chart below shows, he's actually giving up his contract when the salary is nearing its highest point:
Year
Salary
2013-14
$11.3 million
2014-15
$11.3 million
2015-16
$11.6 million
2016-17
$11.8 million
2017-18 ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Nicholas Goss
Is Ilya Kovalchuk Crazy to Retire from the NHL?
July 11th, 2013 by Nicholas Goss Leave a reply »
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