No, that is not a misprint. Top free agent, forward Ilya Kovalchuk, signed a 17-year deal with the New Jersey Devils today. The deal is reported at just over $100 million. He had offers from the Los Angeles Kings and New York Islanders but decided to stay with the Devils. The Thrashers traded Kovalchuk to the Devils in early February after he rejected a 12-year $101 million contract extension. Ridiculously long contracts are becoming standard in the NHL these days as teams try to stay under the cap. Most of the deals are front-loaded so the teams pay stars lots of money while keeping the salary cap hit to a minimum. Kovalchuk recently turned 27 and will be 44 when the contract ends (if he even plays until then).
Kovalchuk joins Alex Ovechkin, Roberto Luongo, Rick DiPietro, Marian Hossa, Duncan Keith and Henrik Zetterberg as other players signed through at least the 2020-2021 season. Giving long contracts is basically a way for NHL teams to cheat the salary cap. Looking at the 12-year deal the Blackhawks gave to Marian Hossa is a perfect example. They gave him $62.8 million over 12 years, an average salary of $5.233 million per year. The Blackhawks are paying him $7.9 million per year for the first 7 years but he will only count $5.233 million against the salary cap (because the CBA states that the cap hit will be the average annual salary). In the final 5 years (when he is 37-years old+) he will be making $4 million, $1 million, $1 million, $750,000, $750,000 respectively. If he plays those years he would count $5.233 against the cap even though he is making much less but the Blackhawks are banking on the fact that he won't play into or past his late 30s. It's a great risk for the Blackhawks considering NHL players usually don't play into their late 30s and rarely go into their 40s.
UPDATE: The year-by-year payments have been released. Kovalchuk will count $6 million against the cap each year even when he will be making $11.5 million from 2012-2017.
2010-11: $6 million
2011-12: $6 million
2012-13: $11.5 million
2013-14: $11.5 million
2014-15: $11.5 million
2015-16: $11.5 million
2016-17: $11.5 million
2017-18: $10.5 million
2018-19: $8.5 million
2019-20: $6.5 million
2020-21: $3.5 Million
2021-22: $750,000
2022-23: $550,000
2023-24: $550,000
2024-25: $550,000
2025-26: $550,000
2026-27: $550,000
So it looks like Kovalchuk will be retiring around 2020.
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