No Decision: NHL and PA Extend Deadline on Ilya Kovalchuk Contract to Friday

But I’m not.

You can’t make this stuff up, because no one would believe you.

I think the league has a minor problem with something in the contract, however they are willing to let the parties (Kovy/Devs) rework it. If PA forces the NHL’s hand today they would reject it and thus start arbitration at which the Devs do not have the time to do with camp in 16 days. THe NHL is willing to let them fix minor problem. I really do not believe the NHL wants to lose KOVY to KHL.

…. ESPN would like to give Bettman, Bill Daly, et al a one-hour block of time from 4 PM to 5 PM on Friday afternoon, so that we can have the proper showcase with which to end this drama. Bettman can announce that “he’s taking his talents to South Beach”, Scott Burnside or some other suck-up can do a fluff interview, and the world can give a collective yawn before going back to sleep. Maybe they could even let the NHL sell the advertising for the hour, and donate the collective $4.42 to some (un)worthy cause.

Alright, I’ll put a stop to the over-the-top sarcsasm now.

Devils63 may be right. I want to scream out in anger, but should probably take a few deep breaths. My only concern with this idea is why the anouncement wouldn’t simply state that time was needed to reqork the deal. I think this is another bad omen for the NHLPA. Fehr was involved in the arbitration case and he is officially acting now and it still seems like the PA is incredibly weak.

Can we really be expected to believe anything else but the fact that the league really DOES have it in for the Devils? This will go down as the most ridiculous contract approval/rejection process in the history of the NHL, and maybe all of professional sports. I was thinking of calling this a “Comedy of Errors”, but then I realized this was never funny.

Lets say a player and team dislike a contract, but it has 2 years left. The team wants to make it more cap friendly. The league would not allow them to change the legally binding agreement.

Now the NHL and NHLPA did not like the 5 day time table; does that give them the right to change it just because they both want to?

Kovy will be 44 before the NHL puts their collective asses in gear and approves the contract, or, he will be 44 and enjoying retirement after playing in the KHL. It seems like they want to do the old “2 steps forward, 1 step back” moves…..when they start to gain some credibilty as a sport, they pull a move like this!

I would take a full-page ad out in the Ledger stating

To the Devils Fans, Players and Management.

Thank you for the short time I was in New Jersey. You are a first class organization, with first class facilities, fans, players and management. It was my desire to be a New Jersey Devil for the remember of my career.

Instead the league, aided and assisted by a completely inept Players Association, prevented me from doing such.

So it is with regret, that I must sign a contract with the KHL. I once thought the NHL was the peak of professional hockey. I now know, that why most of the best players in the world play here, the league is run in a Mickey Mouse organization unbecoming its members.

Until that changes, I thank you for your welcome while I was here.

Best wishes

Ilya Kovalchuk.

PS: Hope to see in Sochi in 2014.

Irritaion, thy name is Bettman!

This is worse than a soap opera story line. I almost expect the NHL to announce at 4:59 on Friday they have reached a decision. Tune in Monday to find out what it is.

Here’s my proposal. Since the league needed 2 extra days to review the contract, I think it is only fair to give the Devils 2 extra days to get under the salary cap once they get a Kovy contract approved. (And I think they WILL get a Kovy contract. I think Lou is on a mission at this point.)

NHLPA – When the league asks for another extension (which I have no doubt they will), tell them to forget it. I see the league trying to drag this out to the eve of the regular season, approving the contract, and then trying to penalize the Devils for being over the cap after the start of the season. (Beginning to sound like a Florida recount all over again.)

Overlooked in the length of this situation has been the negative impact on marketing and season ticket sales. After that press conference I thought the organization turned a corner and could start a real marketing effort in regards to having some young marquee players.

Not only is that being delayed (or worse essentially killed by the circus like atmosphere), our ability to construct a roster based on financial composition is being severely jeopardized. Time and desirable solutions are running out. Also, by making this debacle so public, there are positions being taken by teams which may limit the amount of partners willing to do business with us now.

John – as much as I agree with the vitriol toward the league I also have to wonder if the PA is doing the process a disservice. I can see a situation where the PA wants the investigations into the other deals (Hossa et al) completed and the league is using these investigations as leverage against the PA in the current negotiation.

While this really should be an up or down vote on the Kovalchuk contract, it has morphed into something akin to a US Congress spending bill where other amendments are tacked on to the main bill.

For instance. in additon to Kovy’s contract, the PA as I stated above wants to end the investigations of Hossa et al. It also wants clarity that the league won’t fine the player or agent for the first contract.

The league does not want to allow an open interpretation of what makes a legal contract and wants to have it explicitly stated in the CBA, perhaps through an amendment. This issue is one that I suspect has much debate.

Both sides have taken this situation with Kovy and allowed it to mushroom into something much larger. Its a shame. The league’s assets go home to their families each night. If the league doesn’t respect that, then the teams comprising the league and the league itself will suffer diminished value.

The NHL has just proved why it remains to be one of the biggest piss poor run leagues in the country. They cant even handle the monster that they themselves have created by letting deals like Pronger and Hossa go by without question. I will tell you the reason why those contracts went by without all the crap they are putting the devil through now is because they all play in big market cities and are EXTREMELY marketable. If Chris Pronger or Marian Hossa played on different teams that were not the same 6-8 teams that play on NBC every week, NBC would lose ratings. So in a way the NHL created this “cap circumvention” monster to try to get ratings.

I am greeted by the warm hug of that blazing ball of fire in the sky, e’er determined to turn my flesh to ash. Or at least i would be if I wasn’t in my lovely, institutional blue-grey cubicle before it crested the horizon this morning. Having had some time to simmer down and give a bit of thought to the whole thing, I think the delay is a good thing, even though I was giddy with anticipation of a resolution in the whole matter. Allow me to explain, try to follow along. It’s still early, and I may start rambling.

Since the whole thing started, we recognized that there was a clarity issue in the CBA in regards to lifetime contracts, and these invisible lines, arbitrary limits, reluctant precedents, and so on. Several people brought up the desire, and more importantly, the need to open the CBA, at least in principle and correct these problems. However, at the time, the NHLPA was crippled by internal disorder and lack of leadership. Contract 1 denied. Arbitration upheld the decision, likely due to speculated poor representation at the arbitration hearings by the NHLPA. Oh, and since the decision was upheld, the NHL has given at least lip-service to the investigation of other similar, long term contracts.

The NJ Devils have since gone through the ruling (explaining the rather lengthy period of time between rejection of contract 1 and the submission of contract 2) issue by issue, word by word and developed a structure that addressed the foundation and substance of the arbiter’s decision. Framework was discussed with NHL. Contract 2 submitted.

The NHL does not like Contract 2. It is still the type of contract that this whole kovalsaga is intended to stop. There is a really big UFA year coming in July 2011, and the NHL does not want this to happen again, because it is disruptive to the operations of jsut about every team, and it makes them look crappy. They know that, but some things are more important to them at this point than appearances, and I can respect that to a certain degree.

However, the NHL cannot find reason to reject Contract 2, since it does address the specific concerns of Bloch and the previous ruling, which would surely play an evidencial purpose in a second greivance resolution. Perhaps the NHL believes that it will not be successful in another arbitration, and maybe, just maybe, they aren’t interested in dragging this process out longer than it has to be since we’re only 2 weeks away from the beginning of training camp. Significant delays and actions at this point are even more disruptive to their product, and let’s be honest here, they aren’t converting any new fans because of this, and may very well be driving some away.

Now, after defining those assumptions, we can begin to hypothesize about the nature of the extension and what it means for Mr Kovalchuk and the Devils, as well as the league as a whole. Given that the League is concerned with stemming the tide of long term, lifetime contracts, but has limited (if any) interest in actually penalizing the contracts currnetly being “investigated,” it seems logical that these contracts could see their investigations closed and declared valid in accordance with the CBA as it was written. The NHLPA and the League then work out actually defining the line such that the FA period in 2011 is guided by actual guidelines, rather than undefined, poorly communicated limits that may or may not change at the whim of the League or are open to interpretation. I think that’s what this extension is for; the definition of the lines and where contracts will be accepted and where they won’t.

My expectations for friday, realistically, and not through the glasses of a Devils fan, but rather a fan of hockey (perhaps naively hoping that the best interests of the game are the concern here…)

1. Kovalchuck contract accepted – there is much rejoicing.
2. Kovalchuk contract immediately placed “under investigation.” – A formality due to language written into an Annex of the CBA
3. All investigations of SPCs or SPC Extensions are hereby closed in accordance with the terms set forth in Annex K of the CBA. League officially recognizes that these contracts are “legal,” but structures such as theirs were not intended, and they are reluctantly accepted. For this reason, NHL has worked diligently with the NHLPA to clearly define the term and salary limits on SPCs that will or will not be viewed as circumventional.
4. All future SPCs must conform to term and salary conditions as clarified in Annex K of the CBA.

This simply and effectively deals with precedent contracts, the Kovy contract that addresses the substance of Bloch’s ruling, and the potential flood of lifetime contracts in the 2011 FA period prior to CBA renegotiation.