The Decision(s)

The two biggest free agents coming out of the 2011-12 season shocked and stunned fans around the NHL by leaving the franchises they started with for a colossal combined contract worth over $196 million and covers 26 years.  Independence Day, indeed!

Former New Jersey Devils forward Zach Parise and Nashville Predators defenseman Ryan Suter chose to be teammates on the Minnesota Wild, making the biggest impact in the franchise's history since the club was created in the league expansion of 2000-01 (which filled the void of the North Stars team which was relocated to Dallas in 1993).  Both players had interest beyond their previous teams, and Minnesota was not expected to be the favorite for either of them - let alone get them both.

Their identical contracts look like this:

• Year 1: $2 million base salary + $10 million signing bonus = $12 million

• Year 2: $2 million base salary + $10 million signing bonus = $12 million

• Year 3: $6 million base + $5 million signing bonus = $11 million

• Years 4-8: $9 million base

• Year 9: $8 million base

• Year 10: $6 million base

• Year 11: $2 million base

• Years 12-13: $1 million base

Unlike previous CBA-busting agreements by Chris Pronger and Ilya Kovalchuk, this one won't rankle the league officials, but is likely the last of it's type as the collective bargaining agreement is expiring.  It comes on the heels of 10-year contracts for Jordan Staal and Jonathan Quick, and a 12-year extension for Sidney Crosby, all three also considered lynch pins for their organizations on the coming years.  While other teams offered competitive terms in both money and years, both players determined they could get fat contracts for the length of their careers, and more importantly, play together while defining an era for their new team.  Parise also gets to go home and play in his hometown.

Obviously, there's a lot of teams disappointed - Detroit had a Lidstom-sized hole to fill with Suter and would have loved to add Parise to their top six, and Pittsburgh carved out a big block of cap space looking for some pieces to return them to the Cup finals, but none more than New Jersey, who lost their captain and arguably biggest star, and Nashville, who locked in goalie Pekka Rinne to a long term deal last year in the hopes of anchoring their top players to the organization, but now gave up a key D-man and may lose captain Shea Weber to free agency next year.

And the Wild? They have not won a round of the playoffs since 2003, and missed them altogether for the last four years, but this is a big enough step to make them legitimate contenders for the post-season and a new destination for players and new talent.

Deal With The Devils

Almost halfway into the season, the New Jersey Devils are tied for dead last in the NHL (20 points), have lost three straight games, and 8 of the last 9. Looks like there's going to be restructuring...

Adios, John MacLean, (re-) enter Jacques Lemaire, for his third trip with the Devils as coach. Too little and too late?  The team has won three Stanley Cups since 1995, made the playoffs every year since 1997 and usually ranks near the top of the Eastern Conference, but can Lemaire make a miracle happen? “When you struggle like we’ve struggled, you don’t turn this around in a couple of shifts....It’s going to take a little time but I know the guys will come back. I could see it.”

It has been a rotating wheel of coaches in post-lockout New Jersey, which foreshadows their current troubles:  Larry Robinson stepped down in the middle of the 2005-06 season citing "health issues".  Claude Julien was fired before the 2007 playoffs. Brent Sutter resigned from the Devils after the 2009 playoffs.  Let's hope Lemaire has true confidence, since he retired after last season with the organization, getting taken out of the first round of the playoffs by the Philadelphia Flyers, who weaseled their way into the post-season with a win in the final game of the season.  He will finish the season with the team, but can he motivate a team that was outscored 20-4 in the last four games? And what does he have to work with?

All-star goalie Martin Brodeur has gone 1-6-0 since returning from an elbow injury. Ilya Kovalchuk has been a major disappointment (karma for the Lebronesque summer signing saga?). Injuries to Bryce Salvador and Zach Parise have dogged the team. Salary cap limitations from questionable contracts for Brian Rolston, Dainius Zubrus, and Kovalchuk forced the team to skate short and limit their options. The team has the lowest goals scored in the league (57), 5th worst power play conversion (15.7%), and top player has 24 points - not even in the league's top 50 (rating 72nd)

The team would have to win between 30-35 of their remaining 47 games to have a shot at the lower ranks in the post-season.  Good luck with that...


UPDATE: They got spanked by the arguably worse (or at least perennially bad) New York Islanders 5-1, who now jump ahead of the Devils by two points, leaving New Jersey alone in the basement.

Around The Rink On Opening Weekend

The best story out of the 2010 NHL debut weekend is the come from behind win by the Kings against last year's playoff nemesis Vancouver Canucks.

Justin Williams tied the game on a power play with 4:05 left, and a shootout goal by Anze Kopitar - who came back after taking a stick to the face in the second period that required 18 stitches, sealed the win in season opener, 2-1. It was a great end to an evening that started with a lengthy pregame celebration of the Canucks’ 40th anniversary. The Canucks played their first NHL game against the Kings, and both teams wore vintage jerseys as a throwback to that game decades prior. In addition to the win, it was the first game for defenseman Willie Mitchell against his former team, who he last play with on January 16, where he sustained a season-ending concussion.

Next, I take a lot of joy in seeing that Dallas Stars forward Mike Ribeiro was arrested for misdemeanour public intoxication at a local restaurant Sunday night. Ribeiro scored the winning goal in a shootout against the New York Islanders, giving his team their first 2-0 start since 2006.  While talented, he's a cocky prick who runs his mouth during games, and it looks like karma got tired of hearing him carry on.  Being in our division, it's also good to see any troubles befall our rivals.  There won't be jail time, but any extra distraction to keep our opponents off their mark is helpful, and I'll enjoy heckling him when they come to town.

And finally, the price the New Jersey Devils paid for Ilya Kovalchuk has caught up with them!

Due to injuries (defenseman Anton Volchenkov's broken nose from and Brian Rolston's lower body injury) and suspensions (Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond with his automatic one-game rest for instigating a fight in the final five minutes of a game), the Devils are struggling to field a full squad on the ice and unable to replace those players due to the financial constraints of the salary cap. Tonight they'll have to play with only nine forwards, along with six defenseman and two goaltenders -and for a home game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.  And it's probably not going to be the last time.

Coach John MacLean insisted his hands aren't tied with a reduced roster, but it appears to be the culmination of seasons of cap mismanagement catching up to GM Lou Lamoriello.  And the roster / cap issue will linger once players on the long-term injured reserve return, forcing a move to get the team under the cap.  The team, which didn't make any moves in the off-season due to the vigorous pursuit of Kovalchuk, will now reap what they have sown.  Kudos again to Kings GM Dean Lombardi for not putting one player before the team.

The NHLverending Story

The NHL has successfully - and surprisingly, defended its decision to reject the New Jersey Devils' 17-year, $102 million contract with free-agent winger Ilya Kovalchuk.

The NHLPA was widely believed to have the upper hand, and other franchises had previously exploited the loophole in the collective bargaining agreement to front-load contracts and bring down the total salary cap hit on long-term deals. Arbitrator Richard Bloch ruled against the NHLPA's grievance of the NHL voiding of the contract, which means Kovalchuk is free to sign with any team. My beloved Kings, who held extensive talks with Kovalchuk before he signed with the Devils, are reportedly still interested, as is SKA St. Petersburg of Russia's Kontinental Hockey League. The Devils can try to negotiate another contract with Kovalchuk that the NHL might approve, but that would probably involve a less favorable salary cap hit for the Devils or less money for Kovalchuk. Or prehaps both.

There's no question that the Devils were trying to get around the salary cap with this contract, which paid $95 million in the first 10 years and then spread out the rest until Kovalchuk would be a 44. Bloch wrote in his ruling that the Kovalchuk deal "is a retirement contract" and that it goes "well beyond the typical retirement age for NHL players." So did it close the loophole? Hardly. But it will send a chilling effect through the teams and players and agents that try to exploit it - which was the point to begin with.

Puck Daddy takes a look at a few of the myths that are floating around the situation, and what it means for future contracts.

LA's Red Wing

The LA Kings announced that they signed a Russian LW for the upcoming season...and it wasn't Ilya Kovalchuk. Or their UFA Alexander Frolov (he's now a New York Ranger*).

Enter Oleksiy Volodymyrovych "Alexei" Ponikarovsky (that's Олексій Володимирович Понікаровський to you), who landed a one year-$3 million deal after his recent camapign with Toronto and Pittsburgh, where he scored 21 goals and 50 points. Ponikarovsky has scored at least 20 goals in four of the past five seasons, and is hoping to stay in the same town come next season. “I hope it’s going to be a long-term relationship after one year,” he said. “This was the first time I ever experienced the free agency process, and so it was both exciting and tough. I’m happy it’s over, and that I know the team I’m going to be playing for next season. It’s a young team playing great hockey. I’ve followed the team, how they play and where they are at, so I know it’s going to be an exciting year.”

Ponikarovsky has been called a solid two-way forward, and handled a significant offensive role in Toronto despite their poor showing over the last few years. He scored a career-high 61 points in 2008-09, including 23 goals. And in 11 postseason games with the Penguins last spring, he scored five points. “I’m 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, and I know what my game is,” Ponikarovsky said. “I have to use my size and basically go hard to the net—take the puck there, protect the puck in the corners and finish my checks, all the basic stuff that a guy my size has to do, along with scoring some goals and helping my team win.” He's like late season filler Fredrik Modin, but a decade younger and healthy.

The deal for Ponikarovsky still leaves the LA roughly $10 million under the salary cap, though there's not much left in the free agent realm. There's still trades to be made, and there is a possibility that a top scorer or defenseman could be acquired before the season opener.

* One other Russian, Artem Anisimov, plays on the Rangers. Perhaps they will run a line with the threesome of Frolov - Anisimov - Gaborik...the FAG line?

It Never Ends

So yesterday, a small tear was shed about losing Ilya Kovalchuk in the roller coaster courting of free agency...but the saga WILL. NOT. END.

The NHL stepped in and voided the 17-year supercontract between Kovy and New Jersey, citing improprieties in the structure that deliberately created a lower salary cap hit. And why is that important? There's a great explanation by Rich Hammond about how salary and salary cap really factor into deals which clears up a lot, but there's also the glaring tilt in salary - here's how the payout would have been:

2010-11: $6 million
2011-12: $6 million
2012-13: $11.5 million
2013-14: $11.5 million
2014-15: $11.5 million
2015-16: $11.5 million
2016-17: $11.5 million
2017-18: $10.5 million
2018-19: $8.5 million
2019-20: $6.5 million
2020-21: $3.5 million
2021-22: $750,000
2022-23: $550,000
2023-24: $550,000
2024-25: $550,000
2025-26: $550,000
2026-27: $550,000

The contract represents a $6 million annual cap hit for the Devils. There is a no movement clause through the 2016-17 season and a no trade clause from 2018-19 through the deal's completion. Kovalchuk can be traded between July 1, 2017, and June 30, 2018.

Sure, you pay a player more when they're in their prime, but the deal has Kovy on ice when he's 44 years old...and he's no Chris Chelios in terms of stamina or Gordie Howe in longevity.

Kings-centric blog Jewels From The Crown immediately and clairvoyantly questioned the signing, and called for an investigation of the 17-year deal with the Devils:

If (Commissioner) Bettman isn't going to draw the line in the sand here, where is the line? Why not have it be 23 years, until Kovalchuk is 50? Thirty-three years, till he's 60? Obviously, Lamoriello (NJ's GM) has made the calculation and decided that 17 years is the farthest he can push the Bettman without forcing him to void the deal. But Chicago made that calculation on the Hossa deal and decided a deal that took Hossa to age 42 was as far as they could go, and they got themselves an investigation. I know that's meaningless, except to say that the Kovalchuk deal has at least earned itself that much.

And this was the one that broke the dam, as Yahoo! Sports NHL concisely points out here.

So now, The NHL Players Association has five days to file a grievance and the contract would be considered dead until an arbitrator's decision is announced. If there's no response from the NHLPA, then after five days the contract is dead and it's back to the free market. Interestingly, Devils GM Lou Lamoriello openly admitted he was not a fan of the deal and that the NHL "shouldn't have these", and it's worth adding that New Jersey's VP of Hockey Ops, Steve Pellegrini, worked for the NHL as their "cap regulator", meaning that he understands everything there is to know about the collective bargaining agreement - so this should have cleared.

A source "familiar with NHL contracts and the CBA" told ESPN.com that they can't see how the NHL could win its case -- that the deal circumvents the collective bargaining agreement -- if it went to court. What's to stop a team from signing a player to a contract that takes him into his 40s, the source said. There is no language in the CBA to prohibit that, they pointed out. But this may be the crackdown from the league to close the loophole of recent deals tendered to players like Roberto Luongo, Chris Pronger, Marc Savard, Marian Hossa and others preceding Kovalchuk's deal. The result, if it works in the NHL's favor, would limit the length of contracts and solidify language governing the range of payments acceptable within a contract.

If the contract is killed, what happens next? Will teams return to the frenzy now that the league has officially chilled the long-term, front-loaded contract frenzy? And what team will take a run at Kovy knowing he'll want the max dollars allowable ($11.5 million) along with a long term?

Kovalchucked

The NBA made a huge issue of LeBron courting suitors for his services, going so far as to make a giant televised F-U Cleveland by airing his decision as a one hour special. But there was a bigger free agent story that didn't get the coverage...because it's hockey.

Since free agency began July 1st, the headline was based on where Russian sniper Ilya Kovalchuk would end up...and how much it would take to get him there. For those not aware of the particulars, Kovalchuk was basically the lone bright spot in an otherwise forgettable Atlanta teams. Drafted number one in 2001, he's averaged more than 40 goals a season, and at 27, has 642 career points in 621 career games. Looking for the longevity (and dollars) that fellow countryman Alexander Ovechkin (aka Sidney Crosby's nemesis) has carved out for himself, the word was Kovy wanted to hit the $100 million mark when he became an unrestricted free agent. When Atlanta gave him up to New Jersey before the trade deadline this year, the situation became more combustible.

Kovalchuk rejected Atlanta's bid to get him back at $101 million over 12 years, leaving two suitors in true contention - the New Jersey Devils and, yep, the Los Angeles Kings. What followed for more than two weeks was worse than a hostage crisis negotiation. There were rumors on both coasts about possible offers and rejections, and more back and forth than the saws at a tree mill. LA Kings Insider kept tabs and Yahoo! Sports NHL / Puck Daddy pulled together the various speculation (just look at the glut of posts tied into Kovalchuk alone). Things looked promising when Kovy made a visit to LA over the weekend, but no announcement was made...until late last night.

Kovalchuk agreed to a staggering 17-year, $102 million deal with New Jersey.

There was the obligatory press conference, and huge reaction to the deal around the interweb. The best out of the west was 15 years at $80 million, but not the zinger that Kovy was looking for. My beloved Kings, who have still not resigned (coming off a $4 million salary) the sometimes M.I.A.-during-games LW Alexander Frolov - and were obviously hoping to win the Kovy derby, lost out on Simon Gagne as an option later in the day. With two capable players for that spot and a thinning supply of free agent wings, will Frolov still have a place? Are there trades to be had later in the off-season?

Kovalchuk would have been one of those final pieces to make LA a serious playoff threat, like Pittsburgh and Chicago's prior team building moves that gelled for both and earned them Stanley Cups. But I credit Dean Lombardi for not giving away the farm to get Kovy, especially with the awesome Drew Doughty, Jack MF Johnson, Wayne Simmonds, and other youngsters about to enter contract year negotiations. It's far better to keep the talented core together then gamble on one player...even if that player would have made us that much better.

Unwaivering Avery

If there's one thing Sean Avery is good at, it's stirring up shit The NHL's pest, who's dated the likes of Elisha Cuthbert and Rachel Hunter, is like the Ellis Island of hooking up with for starlets, and knowing he was facing Cuthbert's beau, that's just not an opportunity you don't comment on if you're Sean Avery.

Did you crack a smile? Did you roll your eyes? Did you see anything that would warrant swift punishment from the National Hockey League? Puck Daddy covers the overblown fiasco:

The NHL has had its say, Tom Hicks agreed and now it's Dallas Stars Coach Dave Tippett addressing the indefinite suspension of Sean Avery for saying that other NHL players have had sexual intercourse with women he used to date. "It's something that the league has taken action on and our owner has supported it. I think everyone in our room believes there is an integrity that has to go into the game -- a respect for the game and a respect for your opponents, and Sean crossed that line."

If there's any defending Gary Bettman's decision to suspend Avery before yesterday's game against the Calgary Flames, it's for the sake of safety. There was every chance that Dion Phaneuf was going to knock Avery into British Columbia. There was every chance that a Stars player may have paid a price for Avery's indignation, both in his "sloppy seconds" crack and his previous comments about Jarome Iginla.

From a player safety perspective, the NHL has the high ground. But in the past, when situations threatened to get out of hand between teams with bad blood, the League would opt for back-channel threats of zero tolerance. Think back to huge brawls like Buffalo and Ottawa; Round 2 is always a letdown, because it was made clear before the game that the silly stuff would be met with a swift kick to the wallet.

And that's where the NHL looks absolutely foolish today. The League suspending Avery for opening his yap and making a frat boy joke elevates his antics back to legendary status. This is the Avery Rule all over again; Avery looks irresponsible but mischievous, and the League looks like it's making special considerations because the class clown acted up. Give him 10 games, give him 30; he wins again.

Seriously, if the NHL were half as vigilant on hits to the head as they are for Sean Avery's nonsense, Simon Gagne might not hear church bells every time he closes his eyes. If Avery gets more than a single game suspension out of this, the NHLPA should call the league out on the carpet for prioritizing PR above player safety. If Gary Bettman was as smart as he thinks he is, he would have picked up the phone to Tom Hicks and demanded the Stars suspend Avery. Make it a team issue rather than a League issue. Turn Avery back into a locker-room cancer instead of clouding the issue by elevating him into a free-speech martyr. In the end, suspending Avery proves Avery correct that this League is disinterested in creating a compelling product to which fans want to pay attention.

Once again, Sean Avery is the biggest story in hockey. Once again, the NHL was squandered the moment: "NHL Renders Flames - Stars Unwatchable by Suspending Avery."

Two final thoughts: If Avery had said the "sloppy seconds" line after a game in the locker room, the NHL would have condemned it but there'd be no suspension. His grandstanding is his sin.
We know this because Ian White of the Toronto Maple Leafs wasn't suspended after telling the media that Ilya Kovalchuk will "get what's coming to him" the next time they meet. I guess Avery's joke is more offensive than the threat of continued violence. Maybe if White has added, "And the second time, it'll get reeeeeeeeeeal sloppy."

Second ... is anyone else thinking there's way, way more to this than we know about? Avery's smirking "press conference" certainly seemed like a counterpunch, didn't it?