A can full of iced worms

By Scott Antoszewski

The arbitrator ruled in favor of the NHL this week and has voided the 17 year $102 million contract Kovalchuk signed with the New Jersey Devils. Kovalchuk is now a free agent again and can sign with any NHL team. The problem is not who wants him; it’s who can afford him.

He’s stated that he wants at least $10 million a season. The Thrashers offered him that last season and he flat turned them down. He’s not only looking for big bucks, but he wants them from a contender, which limits his options dramatically. The arbitrator ruling will prevent teams from offering a front loaded contract, so the question becomes who has the money to pay for a $10 million a year player who hasn’t led a team to victory or won anything of note himself. I believe that Ilya is in a real bind here. He’s going to have to lower his demands or face playing in the KHL next season, both of which may be a good thing for hockey fans.

The arbitrator’s decision has also opened up a whole new can of worms that the Players Association most likely never thought through. The collective bargaining agreement with the NHL has two clauses that state that the league can review any contract, even after it has been approved, and there is no time deadline for the review of any contract.

A player can be in year two or three of a ten year contract, and if the league chooses to review it and reject it, that player is going to be up the creek without a contract. I think the NHL has let these super long term deals go on for a few years to build up enough ammunition to enact these clauses and make the players pay. The NHL has apparently already started reviewing the contracts of Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo, Blackhawks winger Marian Hossa, and Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger. The league will use the Kovalchuk decision as its precedent because the arbitrator even went so far as to mention those three contracts by name in his decision on the Kovalchuk case.

Long story short, Kovalchuck is back on the market, and now any player who signed a mega deal in the past few years, has reason to sweat. Stay tuned, it looks like this is just getting good.

It's not crazy, it's just sports

By Dan Rodgers

We will start with the only sport that is currently in season and run down the important things that have happened recently.

MLB

• Yanks 3B Alex Rodriguez hits his 600 career homer.
• Nolan Ryan and Mark Cuban enter a bidding war for ownership of the Texas Rangers.
• Old people traded at deadline to try and get W.S. ring (note: Berkman, Oswalt)

NFL

• Favre says good chance he will play if ankle is healthy.
• Allegations have Favre "sexting" to a member of the Jets personnel.
  
• Jets CB Revis holds out from training camp, wants big money.
• Albert Haynesworth fails conditioning test...again and again...
• Big Ben suspended for 4-6 games.
  

NBA

• John Wall to D.C.
• Amar'e travels to the Knicks...looks for playmate.
• King James joins Bosh and Wade in Miami.

NHL

• Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup.
  
• Caps to face Pens in Winter Classic...at Heinz Field.
• League rejects 17-year deal for Kovalchuk.
  

Hot Stove Hockey

By Scott Antoszewski

I thought I was going to have a hard time finding interesting things to write with the NHL in the off-season, and my general lack of interest in baseball so far this year. Boy was I wrong.

The news is simple and complex in so many ways. The Chicago Blackhawk’s signed free agent goaltender Marty Turco to a one year, $1.3 deal. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be newsworthy but the way the Hawks got there is newsworthy. I’ll start back in June, when the Hawks won the Stanley Cup. The team was overloaded with players in the final year of their contracts, which is how they managed to get so good and stay under the salary cap. Goaltender Antti Niemi was in his first full year with the Hawks, and earned the starting job earlier in the year. Niemi was making a modest $825,000 which isn’t all that bad for a young goalie. Niemi went on to backstop the Hawks to the Cup and went looking for a substantial raise.

The Hawks had already dumped the likes of Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, and Andrew Ladd to make salary room. Neimi and the Hawks went all the way to salary arbitration, and the arbitrator sided with Neimi. He was awarded a one year $2.75 contract. The Hawks had a couple of days to decide to accept the ruling or allow their rookie goaltender to become an unrestricted free agent. The Blackhawk’s made the decision to let Niemi walk, and signed Turco to the $1.3 million deal. That’s how the Hawks go from winning the Cup, to signing a goalie whose reputation is built on playoff futility. I’m sure occurrences like this are normal in the NBA and the NFL, but the salary cap is still new to the NHL, so teams are still learning to adapt to it. I’m sure there will be more instances like this one in the future, but this one sets the precedence. Neimi is rumored to land in Philadelphia or San Jose. Both cities are in dire need of goaltending.

The arbitrator in the NHL v. Kovalchuk case should rule early this week, so this may be quite a historic week in the league. Stay tuned!

Deal gets rejected

By Scott Antoszewski

The NHL announced early this morning that it had rejected the 17 year, $102 million deal that the New Jersey Devils and Ilya Kovalchuk had signed yesterday. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman advised Devils GM Lou Lamoriello early in the day yesterday that he may want to hold off on the press conference announcing the deal, but the Devils chose to go through with it.

The NHL rejected the deal because they felt that it was a direct circumvention of the salary cap, and a “retirement contract”, where neither party expected the contract to progress all the way to completion. It’s back to the drawing board for the Devils and Kovalchuk.

I’ve never seen this happen before, so I have no idea what the next steps are, but I’m sure it won’t be quick or easy. We’re going to be hearing about this for weeks. I thought I was going to struggle to find hockey news to write about this summer, boy was I wrong.

Kovalchuk resigns with New Jersey

By Scott Antoszewski

The New Jersey Devils have landed the biggest fish in the free agent sea this summer: Ilya Kovalchuk. I haven’t been able to track down terms of the deal yet, but you can bet that it will be at least 10 years, and it will be for somewhere between 80 and 100 million. Just when everyone thought he was going to the L.A. Kings, he re-signs in New Jersey. Typical. I hope for the Devils sake that he produces more than he did in the few months that he was there last year.

NHL Free Agent Frenzy

By Scott Antoszewski

The NHL’s free agent signing period opened at noon on July 1. Free agency in the NHL is handled a bit differently than the other major sports.

Baseball and football players tend to take a slow, methodical approach to where they will sign and for how much. Hockey players on the other hand, sign very quickly starting almost exactly at noon.

I’m writing this at about noon on Friday July 2, we are less than 24 hours into the signing period, and as of now 39 players have signed new contracts, totaling over $270 Million in contract value. I won’t list them, since most of the players aren’t household names, in fact only one notable player is amongst the players who have signed. He is Sergei Gonchar who left Pittsburgh and signed with Ottawa. The terms are 3 years at $5.5 million per year.

Goalies have been the most active with at least five goaltenders changing teams, but the biggest fish left in the free agent pool is Ilya Kovalchuk. Rumors have him connected to the L.A. Kings, but there are also rumors that he will go home and play in the Russian Kontinental Hockey League. I’m interested to see what he chooses. The money he will get from a KHL contract will be much higher than here in North America, but he won’t be playing at the highest level. Does he want the money, or the Stanley Cup? It will be interesting to find out.

The other thing that is fun to keep track of during free agency is how many general managers sign players to deals that are way too big and make that player unmovable. It seems to happen to at least two or three teams every year. Once the player signings slow down, I’ll review the list and put a post together that deals with that issue. Free agency is the last big event of the hockey year, so I don’t expect there to be a lot of news until we get closer to training camp in September.

A real life "Major League"

By Scott Antoszewski

It was about this time last year that Jerry Moyes was debating how he could get out from under the mountain of debt that was the Phoenix Coyotes. The team was terrible, in the middle of a rebuild that seemed to be going on forever. Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky was struggling as coach of the team, and no one was showing up at the games. The future of hockey in the Arizona desert looked bleak when the team entered bankruptcy court and Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie was in line to be the next owner.

Fast forward one year, and the Coyotes are now tied for the top spot in the Western Conference. Who saw this coming? Nobody! I was fortunate enough to see this team play the Caps in Washington earlier this year, and I knew then that they could be a playoff team. Ownership is still up in the air. The Coyotes are officially owned by the NHL, but there is a group that is going through the proper channels to take over the team. The Ice Edge group includes established MLB owner Jerry Reinsdorf. The team has re-worked its deal with the City of Glendale, helping the team make more money, and the fans are slowly starting to return.

The Coyotes aren’t doing this with a bunch of young kids, or a ton of high prices veteran talent, but they seemed to find that “spark” between youth and experience. The chemistry on this team is clicking. Although I doubt they have a cardboard cutout of the owner that they remove clothing from after each win. (see... Major League)

I’m willing to bet that Jobing.com arena will be rocking once the post season starts. This Phoenix team isn’t just a flash in the pan either. They have a farm system chocked full of young talent, almost ready to make their mark.

It looks like hockey is safe in the desert for the moment, so all the “non-traditional hockey market haters” can aim their venom at the Florida Panthers and Atlanta Thrashers. By the way, the Thrash are only one point out of a playoff spot, without Ilya Kovalchuck. The next few weeks should be very interesting.

NHL Playoff Preview

By Scott Antoszewski

The Olympics and the trade deadline have come and gone and it’s time to look forward to the next milestone in the 2010 NHL season: The playoffs! There are some potential surprises as we approach playoff time.

We’ll start in the Western Conference:

The Colorado Avalanche keep winning, and if the season ended today they would be the sixth seed out west. Colorado is only two points out of first in their division, so it’s not out of the question that they could have home ice advantage. The play of goalie Craig Anderson and rookie phenom Matt Duchene are a big reason for the ‘lanche’s success.

The Phoenix Coyotes put the rest of the West on notice at the trade deadline. The acquisitions they made will help bolster their lineup, and if the goalie play and scoring can keep it up, they will make their first playoff appearance since 2002.

The Los Angeles Kings should not be a surprise to the other teams out west. The Kings have a young, up and coming lineup. Players like Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Quick, and Canadian Olympian Drew Doughty will make L.A. a tough place to visit come April and May.

The race for the playoffs in the Eastern Conference is incredibly tight. Currently the last playoff spot is held my Montreal (68 points). The Rangers and Thrashers are tied for ninth in the East with 66 points, and the Lightning and Panthers are still in the mix with 65 and 62 points, respectively.

I would be surprised if Atlanta stays in the race considering that they are now without their leading scorer in Ilya Kovalchuk. The Rangers hopes rest squarely on how quickly they can get Marian Gaborik back from injury. Henrik Lundqvist can only steal you so many 2-1 games. The Lightning have new ownership and a strong young core in Vinny Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, Steven Stamkos, and Victor Hedman. It will be interesting to see if the Lightning’s young guns and veteran leadership can get them back in the playoffs.

There are lots of games with playoff ramifications this week, Tampa plays at Montreal hoping to gain ground on eighth in the east. Vancouver visits Colorado to try and pad their lead and the Panthers take on the Avalanche. Watch former Panther goalie Craig Andersen show Florida that he should have been the number one in Miami.