Ilya Kovalchuk Fallout: More NHL Contracts Are Under Review

Perhaps emboldened by the arbitrator's decision to nullify the 17-year front-loaded contract the Devils had signed Ilya Kovalchuk to, the NHL has begin looking into four similar contracts.

Vancouver Canucks general manager Mike Gillis admitted that the NHL is looking into the 12-year contract of Roberto Luongo. The goaltender signed the $64 million deal last September.

Luongo's contract, while not as long as Kovalchuk's, is structured in a similar fashion. Luongo will average $7 million per year for the first nine years of the contract.

In the final three years, he will average in the $1.2 million range. The contract will take him until age 43.  

Dwayne Roloson, 40, was the oldest goaltender to play in the NHL during the 2010 season. 

Arbitrator Robert Bloch, who ruled against Kovalchuk and the Devils, mentioned four long-term contracts in his ruling.

In addition to Luongo, he cited the contracts of Marian Hossa (Chicago), Chris Pronger (Philadelphia), and Marc Savard (Boston).

The NHLPA, the players, and the teams involved may think they have gotten away with these contracts since they were signed before the Kovalchuk ruling, but they are not in the clear.

Bloch stated the following, "The apparent purpose of this evidence is to suggest that the League's concern is late blooming and/or inconsistent. Several responses are in order: First, while the contracts have, in fact, been registered, their structure has not escaped League notice: those SPCs (standard player contracts) are being investigated currently with at least the possibility of a subsequent withdrawal of the registration."

All of the players that Bloch mentions have contracts that will expire after they are 39 years old.  

The contracts are also front-loaded to pay the players a significantly higher amount in the early years of the contracts.  

The front-loading of the contracts allows the salary-cap hit to be spread over the entire length of the contract since the average salary is what is counted against the cap.

This is a very interesting development and one that bears watching.

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