NHL: Ilya Kovalchuk Free Agent Again as Arbitrator Rules Deal with Devils Null & Void

brandon27 · Aug 9, 2010

Ilya Kovalchuk is back on the free-agent market, and talking already.

An arbitrator ruled Monday that the NHL acted correctly in voiding Kovalchuk's landmark $102 million contract with the Devils.

The league had rejected the 17-year contract, saying the longest deal in league history violated its salary cap.

The NHL Players Association filed a grievance against the league. A hearing was held last week and arbiter Richard Bloch sided with the league when he issued his ruling.

"We want to thank arbitrator Bloch for his prompt resolution of a complex issue," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement. "His ruling is consistent with the league's view of the manner in which the collective bargaining agreement should deal with contracts that circumvent the salary cap."

The decision put Kovalchuk back on the market as an unrestricted free agent, and the high-scoring Russian already was talking to the Devils again.
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http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nhl/news/story?id=5450174

unifiedtheory · Aug 10, 2010

Crap ruling that the NHLPA will use to galvanize them in the next CBA negotiations. The owners are making up new rules to circumvent the CBA that THEY wanted and THEY killed a year of hockey for. I pray Don Fehr is their new head and he brings Bettman to his knees.

Boik14 · Aug 10, 2010

Its a great ruling for a BS contract.

unifiedtheory · Aug 10, 2010

Boik14 said:

Its a great ruling for a BS contract.
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It's good for owners and Bettman to change the CBA when they want to? It's their damn CBA! If this contract is not legit then there are about a dozen others that are the same. Typical NHL, Mickey ****ing Mouse.

brandon27 · Aug 10, 2010

I agree with the ruling, a 17 year deal is just ridiculous, and the way the salary was structured, especially in the last few years of the deal was just blatantly obvious that they were trying to get around the cap. I have no problem with the ruling really. It does bring into question the other contracts, like Hossa, Zetterberg ect... but they were never challenged as they weren't as blatantly obvious. Rogers Sportsnet here though, was saying there is possibly a chance that they may go back and look at some of these other contracts and reconsider them as well.

anlgp · Aug 10, 2010

:lol:

**** the devils

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