Yes it has happened finally. The Kool-Aid has been poured and Ilya Kovalchuk has resigned with the New Jersey Devils. The contract is believed to be 17 years and around 100-110 million depending on reports. Before anyone says anything about Kool-Aid doping, the Kings did offer a 15 year deal to Kovalchuk (at least that is how the story goes thanks to Rich Hammond). How true that is I am sure will be revealed in the coming weeks and months.
Thanks to Eric Marin, we have even more on this. Do not forget Michelle Kenneth’s contribution as there will be more on this on tonight’s Preds On The Glass at 8pm ET. The bottom line is the previous article about the Hockey Apocalypse was not an accident. That was done for effect.
The structure of the contract pays Kovalchuk a boatload over the first 10 years and a pauper’s sum for the last 7. I am sure there will be different amounts announced during the press conference slated at 1pm ET on NJD TV. The cap hit will be around six million dollars a year more than likely. The Los Angeles Kings offer was believe to be a long term deal structured in a similar fashion but for less money. So before anyone completely takes a hatchet to Lou Lamoriello and the NJ Devils, you may want to rethink the old strategy. It was either going to be a short or really long deal anyway. I will be the first to admit I was wrong on that one. I went with short in the end.
There will be more debates and blurbs fired tomorrow and throughout the week I am sure but for the sake of hockey fans, we can all move on now. This did not drag out for months because frankly no one would have been able to take it. Here is the Capgeek salary chart (big thanks to Matthew). This is pre-deal so it will change tomorrow afternoon obviously. Say this is around a $6 million cap hit as expected, then the Devils would really only have to pare down one salary more than likely, maybe two for a cushion.
Sources within the organization say right now at least there are certain players that will not be moved. There are obvious ones like Patrik Elias, who just could not logisticaly be moved. Basically this deal, fairly or unfairly, gives the Devils the flexibility to be able to keep just about the entire team and gives the Devils the ability to sign Zach Parise long term. This is a team that clearly made an upgrade today and can be considered amongst the elite in the East.
Do all of these moves in total make them a better team for the playoffs? Tallinder, Volchenkov, Hedberg, and now Ilya Kovalchuk are an improvement but no one and I mean NO ONE knows what will happen in the extra season. Just like no one truly knew where he was signing. This is a happy day for New Jersey fans but admittedly has to be an uneasy day for the rest of the National Hockey League. That is just the god honest truth.
Now we would be remiss to forget the following….
Kings did not swipe him…after all!
The Kool Aid Man approves…..have a great Monday.
CREDIT: AP / Getty Images
