Kovalchuk signs with KHL

[ThomasTomasz]

MOSCOW -- Russian team SKA St. Petersburg says it has signed forward Ilya Kovalchuk to a four-year contract.

Last week, Kovalchuk walked away from $77 million left on his 15-year contract with the New Jersey Devils.

SKA, a Kontinental Hockey League team, did not disclose the terms of the deal with Kovalchuk in its statement Monday. SKA president Gennady Timchenko described the 30-year-old Kovalchuk as a "real leader."

Kovalchuk scored 417 goals and added 399 assists in 816 NHL games. His best seasons were in 2005-06 and 2007-08 when he scored a career-high 52 goals. He had three other 40-goal seasons.

Kovalchuk has represented Russia at three Winter Olympics, nine world championships, one world junior championship and the 2004 World Cup. He played with SKA St. Petersburg during the recent lockout.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/9478535/ilya-kovalchuk-inks-deal-ska-st-petersburg-russian-khl

A "real leader" doesn't walk away from his team, especially one that's still paying him $77 million. Something needs to happen so guys who are under contract in either league can't just walk away and play in the other.

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

As predictable as the sun coming out in the morning.

 

[wr50l]

You know what, the Devils signed him to a deal that was never meant to be completed anyway, then locked him out, so no sympathy whatsoever.

 

[killgod]

The Devils and Kovy came to a mutual agreement to end this deal. They wanted it as bad as he did cause they are flat out broke and need to get to the cap floor until somebody tells New Jersey they still have a hockey team.

He doesn't want to play in the NHL anymore, so fucking what? He's not breaking any rules or laws, he's doing what he wants, which is to play at home where he and his family wants to be. He gets paid tax free in Russia, as opposed to paying taxes to the US, and he can make more money. Who the fuck wouldn't do this in his shoes...err skates?

Furthermore he'll be able to elevate the KHL similar to how Becks and Henry elevated MLS. Europe having a hockey league to rival the NHL is cool IMO, maybe it leads to interleague tournaments? Regardless this will lead to further interest, and growth of hockey, in European nations. In turn could broaden the International game, which I'm quite fond of watching anyways. I wouldn't mind seeing a 4 year World Cup of Hockey reaching global relevance, rather than to just a few contending countries.



I really don't know why people are so bothered about it, then again, that would require people not being selfish and looking at something from a perspective that's not their own. Something most mouthbreathing sports fans, well...people in general, cannot seem to do.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

I'm worried about it just from the point of, "you signed a contract, and should fulfill it." After all of the backdoor deals that have been done over the past couple years, I find it terrible that this happened. But at the same time, they played the game, got around it, and found a way out that involves them paying none of the $77 million left on the table.

I think elevating the KHL is a good thing, but yet another team circumvents the cap, and I'm not OK with that. Also don't want this to set a precedent, because I believe it can. There should at least be a waiting period after "retiring" where a player can't cross from the NHL to KHL, and vice versa.

 

[leaffan]

I'm worried about it just from the point of, "you signed a contract, and should fulfill it." After all of the backdoor deals that have been done over the past couple years, I find it terrible that this happened. But at the same time, they played the game, got around it, and found a way out that involves them paying none of the $77 million left on the table.

I think elevating the KHL is a good thing, but yet another team circumvents the cap, and I'm not OK with that. Also don't want this to set a precedent, because I believe it can. There should at least be a waiting period after "retiring" where a player can't cross from the NHL to KHL, and vice versa.

There's basically no way a players union is going to agree with that. This has everything to do with a player just not wanting to play in North America and wanting to play closer to home. I remember reading an article Paul Romanuk (the tsn commentary guy who does all the spangler cup games and used to do a lot of the world Jr's) wrote about how people in North America have a hard time grasping the concept that not everyone wants to play in the NHL and playing closer to home and not having to deal with all the troubles cross ocean travels can have is good enough for them.

There's also a couple more interesting things I've read. Kovy's upcoming contract had him getting paid just over 11mil. After escrow and taxes he was realistically only seeing maybe 4mil of that. While most people will say so what I look at that and just kind of shake my head. He was losing almost 50% of his pay to taxes alone and then another 1.5 to 2mil to the NHLs ridiculous escrow fund which of that he "may" get all of it back. Financially that's retarded. I laugh when people say he left 77mil on the table and walked away from it. No he left probably 35mil hell even less when he probably retires before the contract was done and a world of tax head aches. He will most likely make more then that in his final 8 to 10 years of his hockey career if he stays in Russia.

Flip that around in the KHL if Kovy signs a $10mil a year deal that's what he's getting since their contracts are being negotiated in terms of net income and after tax.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

There's basically no way a players union is going to agree with that. This has everything to do with a player just not wanting to play in North America and wanting to play closer to home. I remember reading an article Paul Romanuk (the tsn commentary guy who does all the spangler cup games and used to do a lot of the world Jr's) wrote about how people in North America have a hard time grasping the concept that not everyone wants to play in the NHL and playing closer to home and not having to deal with all the troubles cross ocean travels can have is good enough for them.

There's also a couple more interesting things I've read. Kovy's upcoming contract had him getting paid just over 11mil. After escrow and taxes he was realistically only seeing maybe 4mil of that. While most people will say so what I look at that and just kind of shake my head. He was losing almost 50% of his pay to taxes alone and then another 1.5 to 2mil to the NHLs ridiculous escrow fund which of that he "may" get all of it back. Financially that's retarded. I laugh when people say he left 77mil on the table and walked away from it. No he left probably 35mil hell even less when he probably retires before the contract was done and a world of tax head aches. He will most likely make more then that in his final 8 to 10 years of his hockey career if he stays in Russia.

Flip that around in the KHL if Kovy signs a $10mil a year deal that's what he's getting since their contracts are being negotiated in terms of net income and after tax.

Interesting breakdown on the finances, I had no idea things were like that for the NHL. He was giving up quite a bit of money if that's the case.

I still think that the NHL and KHL could come to an agreement on a "freeze" for players still under contract or retiring from playing in the other league. If you are a free agent in your current league, obviously that's fair game.

 

[1ke]

I always interpreted it as the Devils actually getting let off the hook for a shit contract they signed him to.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

 

[leaffan]

Interesting breakdown on the finances, I had no idea things were like that for the NHL. He was giving up quite a bit of money if that's the case.

I still think that the NHL and KHL could come to an agreement on a "freeze" for players still under contract or retiring from playing in the other league. If you are a free agent in your current league, obviously that's fair game.

I think I posted this picture a while back but you look at it and players salaries are just chopped right up.

Canada's taxes are just so fucked up.

 

[Ravin]

There could be something that stops players from going from one league to another, and that would be the IIHF. They govern all hockey in the world, including the NHL. You need to have the proper card to play in the league. Hence why when all the players went to Europe and Russia during the lockout, they needed to get carded. You just don't hear it in the NHL ever because it isn't a big deal. But Kovy would need to be carded in the KHL to play there and they could say no, but they won't.

To me this isn't going around the cap. He wanted to play in Russia, and so he retired from the NHL. Players retire with time still on their contracts, but only reason anyone talks cap is because of the money. If anything, the Devils should be pissed he didn't do this before free agency opened so they could use that money to get some players.

 

[calgaryballer]

Man, I assume it's the PST/HST that destroys players salaries in the East. Alberta living on dat oil money (and running huge deficits not because of it!)

 

[calgaryballer]

Whoops. Wrong thread