Kovalchuk contract done

2010-11: 6 mil 2011-12: 6 mil 2012-13: 11 mil 2013-14: 11.3 mil 2014-15: 11.3 mil 2015-16: 11.6 mil 2016-17: 11.8 mil 2017-18: 10 mil 2018-19: 7 mil 2019-20: 4 mil 2020-21: 1 mil 2021-22: 1 mil 2022-23: 1 mil 2023-24: 3 mil 2024-25: 4 mil 



Got it?

Yup, 15 years and 100 million. And if you notice the tail end of the contract, there is a lot of money to leave on the table. 7 million in the last 2 years alone that Kovalchuk will likely never see, or perhaps even more if he retires sooner. 


Bettman and his cronies also made it known to the league that these types of contracts will be the last of it's kind. They are grandfathering in the Hossa's, Luongo's, Savard's, Zetterberg's etc etc etc and saying no more. 


The new rules as per Darren Dreger of TSN:


First: For long-term contracts extending beyond the age of 40, the contract's average annual value for the years up to and including 40, are calculated by dividing total value in those years by the number of years up to and including 40. Then for the years covering ages 41 and beyond, the cap charge in each year is equal to the value of the contract in that year.

For example, when a 35-year old player agrees to a seven-year deal that expires when he's 42, the NHL would now take the first five years of the contract to age 40 and average them out. The total becomes the dollars divided by five years. That player's average annual salary would then become the cap hit.
His cap hit in the final two years of his deal would be the actual value of the contract in those seasons, therefore a cap hit of $525,000 for years six and seven of the deal.

Secondly, for long-term contracts that include years in which the player is 36, 37, 38, 39 and 40; the amount used for purposes of calculating his average annual value is a minimum of $1 million in each of those years (even if his actual compensation is less during those seasons).

As an example, a player signs the exact same seven-year deal discussed above, however the deal is signed at the age of 32 and is set to expire when the player reaches 39 years old.  For that contract, the two seasons at $525,000 would remain, however they would be treated as years at $1 million for the purpose of calculating the appropriate cap charge.