Kovalchuk Deal (and Savard Deal) Approved; NHLPA Caves (Again)

by Phunwin on Sep 4, 2010 10:15 AM EDT

Though I try hard to look at both sides of the issues and make an objective decision, I usually tend to side with owners in labor disputes (both in the real world and in sports). This, however, irritates me.

After swearing up and down that there was "no ultimatum", the NHLPA caved to the reported demands of the NHL.

In the future, the salary cap hit for any contract that is five years or more in length and takes a player to his 41st birthday or beyond will be determined by the average of the yearly salaries only until the year in which the player turns 40.

All remaining years in the deal after a player turns 41 will be recalculated based on the salary of those final years of the contract, according to the source.

The two-tiered cap system will prevent GMs from signing players like Kovalchuk to long-term deals with a dramatically reduced salary at the end of the contract designed to lower the salary cap.

The NHL will allow the Marc Savard contract (and the others in question) to stand, so a big round of applause for Peter Chiarelli, who will apparently be one of the last GMs to get away with blatant salary cap circumvention.

The NHL is running roughshod over the union. They are changing the collective bargaining rules in midstream. And the NHLPA, leaderless and clueless, is no more willing to stand up to them than Phil Kessel would to Colton Orr.

The good news in all this? If the NHLPA keeps up this track record of spineless behavior, we can be sure that there won't be a strike or lockout when the CBA expires, since they'll just cave to every one of the NHL's demands.

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see the way i see it… i think savvys contract was the one the circumvented the cap the least (except pronger, but he doesnt count as it was an over 35 deal). yeah two years tacked on at 500k each, but savvys contract will expire before his 40th birthday, so it is not at all unreasonable to think that savvy will definately play out his contract

by BlueNGoldBomber on Sep 4, 2010 11:17 AM EDT reply actions

Yeah, exactly. His deal would have still been legal under the policy they proposed. That, I imagine, is why we only heard about the Hossa and Luongo contracts potentially being overturned, and now Savvy’s.

by Phunwin on Sep 4, 2010 2:14 PM EDT up reply actions

I don’t think I agree they caved! Something had to give. If the PA didn’t agree to an amendment the league could have kept rejecting Kovy’s deal and he would have lost millions. The league, IMO, wouldn’t have rejected Savvy’s deal or wanted things to get messy by trying to reject Hossa or Luongo! Kovy would have been the one to screwed the most! The PA and the league came to an agreement on changing the CBA, The league got what they wanted and the PA saved a couple of players or at least Kovy, millions and millions and the game is better for it. The players had the most to lose.
I’m just happy its done and we don’t have anything to worry about with Savvy. An added bonus is the Devils are now over the cap!

by SkateHitShoot on Sep 4, 2010 11:56 AM EDT reply actions

i dont think they caved either… if there is one good thing about being a baseball fan, it is to know that fehr has a plan. i get this feeling from him that he isnt too worried about this because he is already looking to the next cba and that he has other plans for that

by BlueNGoldBomber on Sep 4, 2010 12:18 PM EDT up reply actions

The NHL was bluffing. They weren’t going to overturn those old contracts after approving them. Hell, Savvy’s agent threatened a damn lawsuit if they did so! The NHL had no leverage here, and they got everything they wanted anyway. Doing this now, after having an approved CBA in place, was bad faith.

by Phunwin on Sep 4, 2010 2:42 PM EDT up reply actions

I agree on the other contracts, that would have been ugly for the league if they tried, but I could have seen them using that obscure, good-faith, salary-cap, santa clausey, thing in the CBA to continue to reject Kovy’s contract. If Kovalchuck was going to get $100M before this amendment, it might have cost the Devils something absurd like close to a $10M cap hit per year.
The league wasn’t going to let anybody else a sign a deal that screwed the cap, they wanted to amend the CBA, they bargained with the union, somebody proposed an offer of grandfathering Kovy and ending the fairy-tale investigation into the other contracts, if they agreed to the amendment. The PA might have saved Kovy over $10M or maybe even helped keep him from going to Russia (which was probably an idle threat at best).
At least we know we have two good years of hockey left before the geniuses on both sides start to walk around with their heads up their ass!

by SkateHitShoot on Sep 4, 2010 5:51 PM EDT up reply actions

I think the change in policy is reasonable, however I’m not sure how you can amend the CBA when it hasn’t expired yet. The “circumventing” clause in the CBA was very vague. At least there is a defined outline of what is considered circumvention.

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by Stanley Cup of Chowder on Sep 4, 2010 12:19 PM EDT reply actions