NHL is going mental

[killgod]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=330099

Luongo, Hossa, Savard and Pronger's deals are being investigated now that Kovy's deal was denied.

Not sure what they are going to do, but this is going to be one ugly mess IMO.

[Senators26]

If the Hossa deal gets rejected then the Hawks don't get their Cup. I'm sure the NHL is using this more as a scare tactic.

[lawson11]

If they reject Luongos deal i will find Bettman and kick him in the balls... if he had any...

[Ravin]

I think they need to leave those alone. They are done deals, they have played for a year with the contracts and for now, you'll have to live with it. But starting now, make it a known issue that front loaded contracts will ALWAYS be reviewed by the league, and start getting people away from doing that sort of crap. Everyone knows this is just a way to get the cap number they want. No one is dumb, and GM's can't sit there and say "oh yeah, when player X is 42 years old, I have no problem having a $6M cap hit and YES he will still be playing when he is that old."

In this case, I do side with the league, because I think these contracts can do more harm in the long run of things. Look at the Islanders who are hurt by the signings of two players who are still on their books. What if Kovy gets traded from the devils. In hurts the Devils by having his contract on their books, and it makes him almost impossible to move because he has such a long term contract.

In some ways, I think maybe they should start using a franchise tag, and with said tag comes the ability to offer longer deals. BUT it can only be on one player, and as long as that player is on your team, you cannot use the tag again. If the Penguins want to offer Crosby a 15yr contract to stay a Penguin for the rest of his life, I see little problem with it as long as they don't front end load it and slap the franchise tag on him. That means for 15 years, they cannot use the tag again. That's just a quick brainstorm, and it does have flaws, but I'm just sick of seeing 10-15 yr deals for guys who will be 40+ years old when they end their contract.

I read on the TSN comments some guy saying "I bet you thousands of players would play past 40 years old if they were offered a contract." Well sure they would, but Kovy at 42 years old is not going to be the same as Kovy at 27 years old. Wonder if that guy will pay 42yr old kovy $6M.

[leaffan]

PLEASE DECLINE LUO'S CONTRACT SO HE WILL SIGN FOR CHEAPER!!

Then we can sign Willie Mitchell and Aaron Asham!

WOO GO CANUCKS GO!

The whole point to looking into these contracts is because their cap hits are way too low.

[Ravin]

There are two ways to solve this. One is to simply say, no contract past X amount of years. My dad keeps saying over and over that three year contracts is the longest they should have. I myself think that is to short, as if you want to rebuild, sometimes three years is not enough. 5-7 years is long enough to me. Second way is to say, you pay what you offer. Meaning if you offer a guy a contract of $10M year 1, 7M year 2, 5m year 3, you are cap hit for how much you are paying him. So year one you get hit 10M on the cap, year two 7M. No "average it out" system where that player signing that contract gets $7.5M cap hit for three years.

In theory that could work. A team that has cap space for a year can offer max contract for the first year and lower it as the moves forward. If you are rebuilding, you can take that big contract on because you can always cut it in half the following season if you work the deal that way.

[dave]

IMO, these long contracts are simply tools to circumvent the cap.
What's the point of a cap if teams can do this shit?
A buddy and I disagree on this, but IMO, if you're gonna have a salary cap, a 25-year deal shouldn't be allowed.

[Blade]

Further Proof that Gary Bettman is the worst GM in sports.........ever.

The cap has been flawed since the lockout and now its just a joke. I hope Pronger's deal isn't BS and they cancel it, its nowhere as ridiculous as Kovy's deal.

My question is how come they are not looking at Ovechkin, Crosby, Zetterberg's, Franzen's or even Mike Richard's contracts?

[killgod]

The whole point to looking into these contracts is because their cap hits are way too low.

What, no. The cap hits are what they should be (i.e. Hossa's hit is 5.275M every year till it's over), that's how they work.

The problem is how they players are actually paid.

They get all the money up front, so that the final few years of the deal they are only owed a couple million of the 80-100M they signed for.

Then they could retire in their late 30's, giving up the final few years of the deal, but they already got paid 95% of the deal so they don't care.

Kovy's cap hit over the final 4 or 5 years would have been 6M a year, but over that whole time he was only actually owed like 3-4M.

[leaffan]

What, no. The cap hits are what they should be (i.e. Hossa's hit is 5.275M every year till it's over), that's how they work.

The problem is how they players are actually paid.

They get all the money up front, so that the final few years of the deal they are only owed a couple million of the 80-100M they signed for.

Then they could retire in their late 30's, giving up the final few years of the deal, but they already got paid 95% of the deal so they don't care.

Kovy's cap hit over the final 4 or 5 years would have been 6M a year, but over that whole time he was only actually owed like 3-4M.

What... no. Well sorta.

The reason why the NHL is looking into these things is due to cap circumvention and teams taking on those extra years which the player will never play it. Luongo getting paid 10mil a year but only having a cap number of 5.3mil, Hossa getting paid a bit under 7.5 a year but only having a cap hit of 5.275 is the issue.

Basically it all comes down to the cap circumvention at this point and I'm sure the league and the players association will have two totally different views on it. The players like it because they are getting paid what they feel is due to them but the league can't have a league full of teams taking extremly long deals to lower cap hits. The problem is the cap was brought in to level player contracts and keep costs down. They certaintly arn't on the right road if this 10+ year nonsense continues.

[killgod]

We're talking about the same thing

I mean, if it wasn't used on 15 year deals, it wouldn't be a problem.

If a team gives a player 21M over 3 years and pays him 10M 7M and 4M with 7M cap hits each year, that's not really a big deal and allows some flexibility for teams working under the cap.

These long deals just exploit that flexibility because of how they players won't be playing out the deals no matter what bullshit they spew.

We're saying the same shit, just talking about the different aspects of it

[Ravin]

This is why I think they need to bring the number of years a player can sign for down a great deal. No player should be signed for over 10 years. What happens if Ovey gets hurt and then he stops being ovey and turns into just another player. Congrats washington, you just paid him a ton of money. I really think this needs to be apart of the new CBA agreement when it comes up. Something tells me this issue will cause a strike in the future, but I think it needs to come up. The cap is there to make things even. If people are just going to offer insane contracts, what is the point. Why not just offer a 20 year deal so the player can make 100M in the first 6 seasons, and then the rest he makes 1M. Would be a sweet 5.7M cap hit, and the player retires after those years.

[killgod]

I dunno if this issue will lead to a strike, sure the players can benefit from personal wealth but they aren't so stupid not to see how destructive this is.

[Ravin]

It may not even be a player issue, but rather a GM issue. Thing is, you got players like Kovy who want max contracts (not worth it IMO) and won't sign for anything less. So the Devils had to offer him $12M but needed to bring the cap hit down. So maybe players need to start knocking back their numbers. Kovy is not worth more the Crosby/Ovey. He to me is a solid 6.5-8M player, but nothing more. Yes, he scored a lot of Atlanta, and it can be argued he did because who does Atlanta have, but I don't think he is as good as he thinks he is.

Go figure its a russian wanting more money.

[Bigpapa42]

Doubt anything changes beyond what's already been done. I think its just a scare tactic, to show the GMs that even what they were allowed to do before won't fly in the future.