We were broadcasting at the Jason Spezza Celebrity Golf Tournament yesterday and talking about Ilya Kovalchuk’s 17-year, 102 million dollar deal, and it finally hit me just how ridiculous of a number 17 years is. Apparently, the NHL came to the same conclusion just a couple of hours later as they voided the contract last night and forced the Devils to re-structure it.
Either 17 years were too many to load into one contract or the idea that he could still be playing at the age of 45 was deemed to be unrealistic and that became the cut-off. I would have to think it was the second option and not so much the first. Let’s remember that Rick Dipietro was only 24 when he signed his 15-year deal with the Islanders and Alex Ovechkin was only 22 when he signed his 13-year deal with the Capitals. Both could have conceivably signed 17-year deals and been OK with the fans and the league.
So, 45 was the magical number. Never mind that Henrik Zetterberg’s 12-year deal takes him to the age of 40. I guess we’ve seen a couple of players still be somewhat productive at that age. Same thing for Johan Franzen as his 11-year deal takes to the age of 40 as well. Just imagine Zetterberg and Franzen at age 40 forming 2/3rds of a line that would have some sort of nickname with the word “geriatric” in it.
I guess 42 years old is still believable to the NHL as well since the contracts of both Marian Hossa and Roberto Luongo will take them to that age. We’ve seen a couple of 40-somethings be competent NHL goaltenders before, I guess. And Hossa might go back to Detroit at the age of 42 to form the final third of the geriatric line with Franzen and Zetterberg.
But according to the NHL, hold the phone on a 45-year old being a good enough NHL player to realistically take a roster spot. That’s too much! (Recent Price is Right reference...) Listen, I’m in agreement with the NHL that the contract is circumventing the salary cap and everyone else knows it is too. However, the NHL doesn’t have solid ground to stand on when trying to fight this because they were too pre-occupied with other things involving the CBA that they forgot to put in some sort of cap on overall or back-end length to a contract.
The only ground the NHL has is a cloudy, shaky and vague clause that is so grey that is basically gives them “carte blanche” to do what they want when it comes to player contracts. The location of this particular clause is different to the clauses used to hand out suspensions or keep a team away from Jim Balsillie, but it seems like everytime the NHL is backed into a corner, it emerges holding a grey tablet with a jack-of-all-trades clause and gets what it wants.
Will it work? Probably not and Ilya Kovalchuk will get his 17-year pay day. Then I’ll be left to wonder when I’ll feel the same way about someone signing a 18/19/20 year contract once we get to that point.