Epic.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

I think it's bullcrap that the Devils' ownership tried to slip by that Kovalchuk would get paid league minimum for five years at the end of his deal.

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mechaphil

How do you police this though? Put a group of people together to decide what contracts are bull crap?

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"Call a cop he robbed Delmore blind!!!"
Rick Jeanerette after Marty Biron's diving save back in 2000.

"I'm going to go to the spa and have a hot tub and massage and relax," Miller said. "That's it, and it's back to work tomorrow." Ryan Miller after clinching the North East division.

And to this, Kovalchuk signed on the dotted line and agreed to it.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this contract according to the CBA. Nothing in it says you can't pay a guy league minimum even though he's probably worth more than that, even in his Twilight. Regardless, the NHL has no grounds to deny this contract, as once again, they have set five precedents on this already.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

I'm too lazy to dig out my copy of the CBA, but this is against the CBA. There are clauses dedicated to "obvious salary cap circumventing tactics" or some such shit.

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mechaphil

http://www.capgeek.com/players/display.php?id=339

That seems pretty fair to me. When he's 37 he'll make close to league minimum. When he's 38, he'll make league minimum.

The Hossa contract seemed pretty obvious to me. The NHL approved that, anyway.

The NHL won't win this. There's too much in the PA's favor.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

The NHL made it clear after the Hossa and Pronger contracts that this shit isn't gonna fly again. They put the smack down with the Kovy deal.

Also, word is coming out Bettman told the Devils that the deal would most likely get rejected, but the Devils went ahead with it anyways.

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mechaphil

TEAM BETTMAN

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Did they write something into the CBA recently that allows them to do this? The union will attack the shit out of this because the contract is in effect until it expires.

Regardless of what the NHL says, they can't really do this because it's perfectly within the rules.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

Yes they can. And once I'm feeling motivated I will pull out the clauses in the CBA that lets them do this.

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mechaphil

Don't bother. Darren Dreger already posted it on tsn.ca.

I still don't agree with it, because again, I still say there's too many players with these contracts in the league for the league to void this contract.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

SO what were to happen say if 2 stars, consistent 100 point players, decided that they want to keep their team together and win and both sign for 2 million each, would the league reject it?

Maybe. The contracts being targeted right now are the ridiculously front-loaded ones. I think I read somewhere that it would actually be the NHLPA to step in and say hell no to insane home-town discounts to stay with a team.

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mechaphil

yeah, remember campbell? he was prepared to sign a 3 year deal with buffalo, but the PA *URGED* him to test free agency and get the 6 year deal he wanted, or so i heard.

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You guys Know I hate to play the lawyer, right?????? Would it have been an EPIC(I do add epic, because other contracts expire at similar ages) mistake to sign Gordie Howe, Dominik Hasek, or Chris Chelios to a similar contract. Many would have called this pure genius. It is almost surely an act to circumvent, but since when can't you circumvent rules?? That kind of subjectiveness can lead to tyranny, and favoritism. I can't wait for phil to hit up the rulebook, because this shit is as Bush league as the 2 Presidential elections before the most recent. It's basically a bunch of guys complaining someone else "broke the code". It already happened with Lowe/Vanek, and they didn't step in there. Oh well, I can't wait for the NHL lawyers to be asked to display their uber-vague "can't do that" statute. Methinks it will leave Lou holding his belly on the carpet. The "cuz we say so" rule??

Actually, yea just go dig up Dreger's explanation on TSN's site. It's way too late and I'm way too lazy at this point hahaha.

During the next CBA, the maximum term should be set at 8 years for anyone 27 or younger and for anyone older than 27, the contract should not be allowed to bring the player past the age of 35. I think that's a damn good rule.

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mechaphil

TSN Insider Darren Dreger explains that the deal was rejected due to the fact that the NHL does not believe that either Kovalchuk nor the Devils expected the 2004 Rocket Richard trophy winner would be playing near end of the contract and that it is a case of artificially lowering the annual average value of the contract. The Devils must now either file the contract once again or the Players' Association can file a grievance.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=328025

Now what happens if it goes to arbitration and the deal is found valid, the NHL has no choice but to immediately accept it and register it.

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mechaphil

Yeah, no more 35+ers.

Now, I fully understand guys play past 35, but at that point it's crap shoot year in and year out so they should only be signing two or three year deals max.

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mechaphil