The New Jersey Devils have just made history by signing Ilya Kovalchuk to the longest contract in NHL history.
The 17-year deal beats Rick DiPietro's 15-year deal signed in 2006, and dwarfs Marian Hossa's 12-year deals signed before the 09-10 season, and the long contracts recently signed by Henrik Zetterberg and Mike Richards.
It seems as though Islanders' owner Charles Wang started this run of long term contracts with the DiPietro signing and with the 10-year $87.5 million contract given to Alexei Yashin.
Wang doesn't seem to be smart enough to have figured out the loophole, or he would have found better players to sign. He did however stumble onto a trend that many may have stayed away from in the past. It has however brought into the open a flaw in the salary cap structure that everyone seems to be taking advantage of now.
The flaw was brought out into the light right after the Chicago Blackhawks signed Marian Hossa in 2009. Dale Tallon was under investigation for his handling of the contract process. While it would be almost impossible to prove, if the Blackhawks and Hossa discussed an early retirement, the Hawks would ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Scott Fitzsimmons
Long Contracts Are Making A Mockery of the NHL Salary Cap
July 20th, 2010 by Scott Fitzsimmons Leave a reply »
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