Not So Fast

I'm glad the NHL has rejected this deal; I just wish they had done the same with past deals. They may have shot themselves in the foot by setting a precedent with the Hossa, Pronger and Luongo deals.

The cap circumvention provision in the CBA (Section 26(3) I believe) basically says that if a contract isn't entered in good faith and is an attempt to circumvent the cap, the deal can be rejected. The problem with this provision is that it's difficult to prove that a contract was not negotiated in good faith. If they were unable to prove bad faith in the past deals, it could be difficult to do so now for this deal. The two items that clearly suggest bad faith cap circumvention are also the items that the NHL has approved in past deals; namely front loaded and long term deals. Unfortunately for the NHL, the Pronger, Hossa and similar deals have established a precedent on this front:

1. The significance of the drop in salary and the age at which he'll be receiving it - $550,000 per year for the last 6 years. It's not much different than the Hossa or Pronger contracts.

2. The length of the deal will actually not be an issue either. If you compare his deal to Pronger or Hossa; yes the Kovi deal is longer but he's also younger than both of these players as of the signing date. So by the time the contrats end, they'll be at a similar age. Eg. Pronger will be 43 at the end of his contract and Kovi will be 44.

However, there is one factor here that opened up this deal to scrutiny and, ultimately, I think could result in the NHL's decision being upheld - Lou's comments. He basically came out and said that although it's within the rules, the deal was inconsistent with the spirit of the CBA and that deals like this should not be allowed in the future. I think the latter half of his comment conflicts with the first half. That is, if a deal is contrary to the spirit of the CBA, then is it really made in good faith? I would argue no and, therefore, it's not within the rules. Lou's comments could be interpretted as an acknowledgement that the deal was structured this way to circumvent the CBA. I'm not surprised by his comments and I think he knew what he was doing when he said it. This is not a deal that Lou wanted to make.