NHL Contracts

The NHL this week is taking a hard look at long term contracts after the Ilya Kovalchuk debacle. As you may have heard, the NHL rejected Ilya Kovalchuk’s 17-year, $100 million contract. Arbitrators agreed that the New Jersey Devils and Ilya Kovalchuk were trying to exploit a loophole in the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Now, the NHL is reviewing all the major contracts from the last year.

Roberto Luongo Contract Details

The NHL has stated that the Vancouver Canuck’s contract signing of Roberto Luongo is under investigation. Roberto Luongo signed a 12 year contract which has him earning $10 million this upcoming season, and has him only earning $3 million in his last 3 years combined. The NHL believes that this heavily front-loaded contract is no different than what the New Jersey Devils and Ilya Kovalchuk were attempting to pull. Nobody has said what is going to come of all this, but rumors are speculating that Ilya Kovalchuk may sign the same exact deal with a Russian team in the KHL which would be detrimental to the NHL.