The NHL owners group took another swing at a potentially large hornet’s nest today as they have announced that they will retroactively investigate other front-loaded player contracts like those received by Roberto Luongo, Chris Pronger and Marian Hossa. After the arbitrator’s ruling yesterday that officially scuttled Ilya Kovalchuk’s 17 year deal with the New Jersey Devils on the grounds that it circumvented the spirit of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the NHL now thinks it’s a good idea to apply the same approach to previously approved contracts.
Are they insane? Are they actually going to potentially void player contracts that have already been through the approval process, some of which have already taken effect? Are they really saying to the NHLPA and the fans that they were wrong in approving these deals? Or are they doing it as a favour to some of the GM’s and owners? The Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks have had to dismantle much of their team in the wake of their victory as the cap constraints tightened against them. Getting out of Marian Hossa’s 12 year deal could work to their advantage. Many Canucks fans would love the team to get out from under Roberto Luongo’s contract. I’m sure Steve Yzerman would gladly call up Bettman and ask them to investigate Vincent Lecavalier’s deal. Same goes for the Bruins and Marc Savard.
Where do you draw the line? Is this participation optional? Duncan Keith’s deal goes until he is 38, and only pays him $2.1 million per season at that age. Does that count? Or does the league think Keith will still be worth that amount at age 38? How subjective are the arbitrators going to be? Many players see a drop off in the later years of their deals, like Mike Richards, Johan Franzen, Jason Spezza and many more. Do you just throw them all out? Is there an age limit? A salary disparity limit? What is the right answer here? Do the players become UFA’s then? Are there rules in place requiring that the player re-work a deal with the same team?
The NHL is setting a dangerous precedent here, and the real losers of this are the players. They are the ones getting caught up in a battle between the GM’s of the league and the CBA. Sure, some could end up getting raises, some could end up losing money, but is it really fair to retract a player’s contract when that player’s already been playing under it? Is this just another show of power by the league, positioning themselves for the upcoming CBA battle in 2012?
Whatever it is they’re doing, we’d better hope that it gets resolved amicably, or we could be looking at a player’s strike or another lock out at the end of the current CBA. With all of the good will the league has built up since the last lockout, are they so willing to throw it all away because some GM’s found a way to make them look bad? What looks worse? Crafty GM’s exploiting a loophole in a contract or the league manipulating the rules any way they see fit? Yes, the fans hate to see all of these creative deals and cap circumvention techniques being employed by GM’s. But they also hate seeing hypocrisy, favoritism and a selective enforcement of the rules.
So let the NHL owners group continue to swing away, because it’s not a hornet’s nest they’re swinging at, it’s the league’s integrity and credibility, and they’re hanging by a thread.
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Born and raised in Northern Ontario but currently living in Toronto, Tyler wouldn't have it any other way. Home to his two favourite sports teams, Tyler revels in the day to day sports experience that is Toronto. 
Or you know, how they pick the same general part of the US to have the Winter Classic in every year?
Not much of a selection in the States to have it really. Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, NYC and Boston. Everywhere is too warm or has too unpredictable weather to have an outside game (although I’m sure the league would still try to have it in Kansas City if it meant they could get a team in that hockey mecca.).
I know here in Philly the weather is too unreliable. We had no snow till March two years ago, and temperatures were in the mid 50′s until then.
Minneapolis? Colorado? Columbus? Long Island? St. Louis? How about some neutral territories like Milwaukee, Kansas City, or Portland? How about oh, I dunno, CANADA? Now they started two just to shut us up, but really the idea started in Canada, and the NHL has just turned into a marketing gimmick to try and get back onto ESPN… Hence… the Crosby Classic as it will soon be known.
In some spots it’s already know as the “Crosby-Oveckin Outdoor Classic” (at least in Philly….where they LOVE those two).
And wait, there’s still hockey teams in Canada? Hell we have to take care of that. Hockey mad markets like Vegas, Kansas City, Oklahoma and Memphis demand it!
Did the NHL think the “Wheel of Justice” was such a great idea they’d use it to decide if contracts were legal or not?
Maybe he figured these kind of contracts were becoming a joke? Enforcing the rules, what a concept.
Ya enforcing them consistently. Imagine.
There’s nothing different from the one they turned down when compared to the ones that Hossa, Pronger, and Luongo are currently running with. But those are legal, but this one is not? Hard to stay legal when they keep moving the net.
Exactly! If you’re gonna enforce something, enforce it consistently. When you pick and choose when to apply a rule it screams of rigging the system and collusion.
That arbitrator was screwed right from the get go. If he rules for the Kovy and Lou (which IMO he should have), the league has a fit. If they rule for the NHL, it makes them look (more) like the arbitrary enforcer of their own rules.
If the NHLPA has any brains (and that’s debatable), this will be a rallying cry to strike when the CBA expires, especially so with the league investigating previous contracts that are already in force. In such a typical fashion for Bettman’s NH, they decide that something that was acceptable is now not to pretend that they’re being “on the level”. Makes you wonder sometimes doesn’t it.
Now come on, the league would never try to influence events for marketing gains *cough* 1999 Stanley Cup Finals *cough* would they?
Nope, not a chance. (2005-06 Finals)
That kind of stuff only happens in the NBA, or *cough* 2003-04 Finals *cough* European soccer leagues.
Ya everyone knows the NHL is consistent in their enforcement of their rules *cough* 1993 Western conference finals *cough*