Re: NHL (Blackhawks included) offseason thread

[17 Seconds]

my favorite moment is when dan hamhuis acted all hurt after hossa gave him a little push and he dove headlong into the boards!

 

http://techrights.org/files/trolltracker/20080528154853/troll.gif

 

good one

[NewUserName]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=ApXSo_PVro0jyX18r4Xo7cd7vLYF?slug=ap-devils-kovalchuk

 

NHL rejects Kovalchuk deal

[Butterscup1679666578]

wow

[Old Style]

interesting

[TruffleShuffle]

ok so that gets rejected but pronger's contract going from $7m to $4m to $0.5m (at ages 41/42) and hossa's deal (getting $1m or less ages 38-42) were ok? i'm all for the devils getting slapped down, but this seems rather arbitrary.

 

i'm not sure what the solution is, but there's got to be some way to close that loophole so that teams can't lower the cap hit by tacking on garbage years at the end of a contract.

[UMFan83]

ok so that gets rejected but pronger's contract going from $7m to $4m to $0.5m (at ages 41/42) and hossa's deal (getting $1m or less ages 38-42) were ok? i'm all for the devils getting slapped down, but this seems rather arbitrary.

 

i'm not sure what the solution is, but there's got to be some way to close that loophole so that teams can't lower the cap hit by tacking on garbage years at the end of a contract.

 

I know that Hossa's deal was investigated by the league but deemed ok. I think it has something to do with the fact that it's a 17 year deal with however many years of it at a huge dropoff in salary than the first 10+ years. Or maybe it's just that the NHL sees this spiraling out of control and is making an example out of the Devils.

 

Either way crazy twist. I wonder if he ends up in NJ now.

[Magnetic Curses]

my favorite moment is when dan hamhuis acted all hurt after hossa gave him a little push and he dove headlong into the boards!

 

http://techrights.org/files/trolltracker/20080528154853/troll.gif

 

good one

 

doesn't do me justice.

 

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSUvOs2jEzSlEC5VegCZ7ncyP73vppok5F00EzbuWx9at-ylb4&t=1&usg=__8BS3eziqSKnbrLdgxr_ZVNJXFGE=

 

that's better

[Drew Doughty]

ok so that gets rejected but pronger's contract going from $7m to $4m to $0.5m (at ages 41/42) and hossa's deal (getting $1m or less ages 38-42) were ok? i'm all for the devils getting slapped down, but this seems rather arbitrary.

 

i'm not sure what the solution is, but there's got to be some way to close that loophole so that teams can't lower the cap hit by tacking on garbage years at the end of a contract.

 

pretty easy to close that loophole i think. one suggestion is to limit contracts to 5 or 7 years but i don't like that as much. i would limit the amount of years that you can sign after 35 or 40. like, you can't be under contract for more than two seasons at a time past the age of 35. i think the long contracts, in general, are good for the nhl and good for marketing players. these are ridiculous though. perhaps they could implement a rule that limits a vast decrease in salary from year to year or from the peak years of the contract.

 

the kovalchuk deal...17 years is too many, until 44 is too long, and the years that he's making >1m in salary are almost entirely in his 40's. 40 is a pretty reasonable cutoff age for retirement i think. at least hossa has 2 seasons in his 30s there. i don't think their rejection is going to hold up when the PA takes them to court, but i understand why they did it in the first place. if nothing else, it sends a message to the rest of the nhl to not do this stuff in the last year before the CBA is renegotiated.

[NewUserName]

the loophole does not bother me that much. I will say that if they are going to reject contracts they should come up with a standard so everyone knows what it is.

[Banedon]

The contract was rejected because years of low salary at the end of the contract were added for the sole purpose of lowering the cap hit, a person familiar with the issues raised told The Associated Press. The person added that no side believes Kovalchuk will play the final years of the deal at those terms. The star forward was slated to earn only $550,000 in each of the last five seasons of the contract that was to run through the 2026-27 season, when Kovalchuk would be 44.

[Flames24Rulz]

The contract was rejected because years of low salary at the end of the contract were added for the sole purpose of lowering the cap hit, a person familiar with the issues raised told The Associated Press. The person added that no side believes Kovalchuk will play the final years of the deal at those terms. The star forward was slated to earn only $550,000 in each of the last five seasons of the contract that was to run through the 2026-27 season, when Kovalchuk would be 44.

 

So they're basically making an example out of the Devils.

[Banedon]

The contract was rejected because years of low salary at the end of the contract were added for the sole purpose of lowering the cap hit, a person familiar with the issues raised told The Associated Press. The person added that no side believes Kovalchuk will play the final years of the deal at those terms. The star forward was slated to earn only $550,000 in each of the last five seasons of the contract that was to run through the 2026-27 season, when Kovalchuk would be 44.

 

So they're basically making an example out of the Devils.

 

I'm betting they'll just have to spread out the salary a bit more so it's not such a steep dropoff near the end.

[jersey cubs fan]

I don't think it's all that arbitrary. Things were getting crazier and crazier with these contracts. And the latest one was just off the wall stupid. If you limit the number of years a 35 year old can sign for, you're screwing over 35 year olds. Just limit them to 10 years, that makes it difficult to really fudge the numbers, but allows for some flexibility.

[UMFan83]

The contract was rejected because years of low salary at the end of the contract were added for the sole purpose of lowering the cap hit, a person familiar with the issues raised told The Associated Press. The person added that no side believes Kovalchuk will play the final years of the deal at those terms. The star forward was slated to earn only $550,000 in each of the last five seasons of the contract that was to run through the 2026-27 season, when Kovalchuk would be 44.

 

So they're basically making an example out of the Devils.

 

I'm betting they'll just have to spread out the salary a bit more so it's not such a steep dropoff near the end.

 

I don't think the Devils want at all to do that because it makes it that much harder to dump him when he's useless at an older age. Also for Kovalchuk, he will make less money as well as more of that money is in years that he doesn't plan on playing.

 

That said, the more I think about it the Devils will find a way to keep him to save themselves the embarrassment of having a press conference to introduce a player that isn't going to be on the team.

[jersey cubs fan]

That said, the more I think about it the Devils will find a way to keep him to save themselves the embarrassment of having a press conference to introduce a player that isn't going to be on the team.

 

Is that more or less embarrassing than having a press conference with no press?

[bukie]

Probably the easiest way to avoid the weird contracts is to limit the % pay increase or decrease from year to year. If a pay scale can't drop by more than, say, 5% per year, that would level it out quite a bit.

[Banedon]

Probably the easiest way to avoid the weird contracts is to limit the % pay increase or decrease from year to year. If a pay scale can't drop by more than, say, 5% per year, that would level it out quite a bit.

 

There is a rule in the CBA about how much salary can change from year to year, but it's still too big of an amount.

[Flames24Rulz]

The contract was rejected because years of low salary at the end of the contract were added for the sole purpose of lowering the cap hit, a person familiar with the issues raised told The Associated Press. The person added that no side believes Kovalchuk will play the final years of the deal at those terms. The star forward was slated to earn only $550,000 in each of the last five seasons of the contract that was to run through the 2026-27 season, when Kovalchuk would be 44.

 

So they're basically making an example out of the Devils.

 

I'm betting they'll just have to spread out the salary a bit more so it's not such a steep dropoff near the end.

 

I don't think the Devils want at all to do that because it makes it that much harder to dump him when he's useless at an older age. Also for Kovalchuk, he will make less money as well as more of that money is in years that he doesn't plan on playing.

 

That said, the more I think about it the Devils will find a way to keep him to save themselves the embarrassment of having a press conference to introduce a player that isn't going to be on the team.

 

They're already in an embarrassing situation as it is.

[UMFan83]

That said, the more I think about it the Devils will find a way to keep him to save themselves the embarrassment of having a press conference to introduce a player that isn't going to be on the team.

 

Is that more or less embarrassing than having a press conference with no press?

 

Or calling a press conference to introduce a new coach who hasn't accepted the position yet, and doesn't?

[Banedon]

The Blackhawks plan to announce on Wednesday that four of their seven preseason exhibition games will be carried on local TV, and two will air on radio.

 

Comcast SportsNet Chicago plans to televise the Hawks' Sept. 22 game vs. Tampa Bay Lightning at Winnipeg, Manitoba, and the exhibition against Detroit two nights later.

 

WGN-Ch. 9 will air a preseason game on Sept. 25 against Detroit and Oct. 3 against St. Louis, the final tuneup for the Hawks' Oct. 7 regular-season opener at Colorado.

[sneakypower]

somebody made a pretty good gif of the Ballard-Vokoun thing

 

http://chzgifs.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/beheading1.gif

[Drew Doughty]

the devils knew the contract was going to be rejected and still held the press conference. weird.

[kujay]

somebody made a pretty good gif of the Ballard-Vokoun thing.

 

That's awesome.

 

And just to throw in my two cents, I don't think the league throwing out Kovi's deal is arbitrary at all. Sure, 12 years is a little silly, but 17? Come on.

[Soul]

the devils knew the contract was going to be rejected and still held the press conference. weird.

 

They apparently wanted to make their position public ahead of time to somehow cement a PA appeal.

 

I really don't know how all that works, but it does sound like there might be an arbitration hearing or something.

[Banedon]

A 33-year-old resident of Lundar, Manitoba is facing numerous charges after allegedly making a series of 911 calls which included demanding RCMP officers somehow bring the National Hockey League back to the province.

 

"He began the conversation by saying he wanted the Jets back. He was quite upset about it," a justice source told the Free Press on Wednesday. The incident occurred last year but was never reported publicly by police. The Free Press uncovered details this week through court documents.

 

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Lundar-resident-faces-charges-over-911-calls-98975869.html