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Let him go. Let it go. If Ilya Kovalchuk wants to retire from the NHL so he can return to Russia, where he can live at home and make even more money than he would have in New Jersey, kiss him good-bye. Wish him well. Sincerely.
The Devils will be better off without him in the long term, even though they gave up so much to sign him – including a first-round pick, maybe even former captain Zach Parise – only to have him walk away three years into a 15-year commitment, leave a gaping hole in their roster and do it after the free-agent frenzy. They get out of paying him $77 million when their finances are shaky. They get hit with only a $250,000 cap penalty each of the next 12 years, according to capgeek.com, when it could have been worse.
The NHL will be fine without him, even though it can’t be happy to lose a star to the KHL. This might happen more often as the KHL expands, improves and courts (or pressures) homegrown players aggressively, but it won’t happen too often in the near future. For every Russian player who has chosen the KHL, far more have chosen the NHL. Big names like Evgeni Malkin and Pavel Datsyuk have signed extensions recently with their NHL teams when they could have gone back to the motherland as heroes.
“I think it’s an extremely unique case,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly wrote in an e-mail. “It does not concern me from a league perspective.”
Kovalchuk announced his retirement from the NHL on Thursday, and he is expected to sign with SKA St. Petersburg, the KHL club with which he played during the lockout – the KHL club with which he threatened to stay when the lockout ended in January, only to come back to the Devils eventually.
Though he left a lot on the table in New Jersey, he is expected to recoup it in Russia – and then some. He reportedly will command a bigger salary. He will be taxed at a lower rate than he would have been in the United States, and his team might even cover the tax. Not only that, whatever he makes will not be subject to escrow, as per the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement with the NHL Players’ Association. (A percentage of players’ pay is withheld to assure the revenue split between the owners and players. Players might not receive the face value of their contracts. The players received 57 percent of league revenues when Kovalchuk signed this contract; they receive 50 percent now. That means he might have ended up with less than he expected when he signed.)
The Devils could have fought it. They could have tolled his contract. Kovalchuk would not have been free to sign with anyone else anywhere – or had he tried, the NHL would have fought to prevent him from doing it based on international transfer agreements.
But the Devils didn’t fight it. They made the retirement announcement. They terminated the contract. In other words, they agreed to cut him loose, and because of that, Daly wrote, “the player would not have a conflicting contractual obligation and would be free to sign and play in another league.” (Should Kovalchuk want to return to the NHL, the Devils will control his rights for “an extended period of time,” Daly wrote. So he can’t, say, come back in a couple of years and join the Rangers.)
In a sense, general manager Lou Lamoriello should be furious. Devils fans should be furious. Lamoriello, likely at the urging of his owner, originally tried to sign Kovalchuk to a 17-year, $102 million, back-diving contract in the summer of 2010. The NHL rejected the contract because it felt the deal circumvented the salary cap, and an arbitrator agreed. Lamoriello tried again by signing Kovalchuk to a 15-year, $100 million, back-diving contract that didn’t back-dive quite as much. The NHL and the NHLPA amended the rules, and the deal went through. But the saga didn’t end.
The Devils forfeited a first-round pick as a penalty. They looked foolish shortly afterward when rookie head coach John MacLean made their $100 million man a healthy scratch, and they had to bring back old head coach Jacques Lemaire to get Kovalchuk to play more of a 200-foot game. The 2011-12 season went as the Devils envisioned, with Kovalchuk leading the team in scoring in the regular season and the playoffs as they advanced to the Stanley Cup Final. At least they made that final. That should not be forgotten.
It is debatable how Kovalchuk’s signing and retirement have affected the Devils. Last summer, they watched Parise sign a 13-year, $98 million deal with the Minnesota Wild. After missing the playoffs in 2013, they watched David Clarkson sign a seven-year, $36.75 million deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Had the Devils not given so much to Kovalchuk, could they have kept Parise? Or would Parise have left, anyway? Had Kovalchuk made this decision earlier, could they have kept Clarkson instead of throwing five years and $24.25 million at Ryane Clowe to replace him? Or would Clarkson have left, anyway?
The Devils will be better off without him in the long term, even though they gave up so much to sign him – including a first-round pick, maybe even former captain Zach Parise – only to have him walk away three years into a 15-year commitment, leave a gaping hole in their roster and do it after the free-agent frenzy. They get out of paying him $77 million when their finances are shaky. They get hit with only a $250,000 cap penalty each of the next 12 years, according to capgeek.com, when it could have been worse.
The NHL will be fine without him, even though it can’t be happy to lose a star to the KHL. This might happen more often as the KHL expands, improves and courts (or pressures) homegrown players aggressively, but it won’t happen too often in the near future. For every Russian player who has chosen the KHL, far more have chosen the NHL. Big names like Evgeni Malkin and Pavel Datsyuk have signed extensions recently with their NHL teams when they could have gone back to the motherland as heroes.
“I think it’s an extremely unique case,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly wrote in an e-mail. “It does not concern me from a league perspective.”
Kovalchuk announced his retirement from the NHL on Thursday, and he is expected to sign with SKA St. Petersburg, the KHL club with which he played during the lockout – the KHL club with which he threatened to stay when the lockout ended in January, only to come back to the Devils eventually.
Though he left a lot on the table in New Jersey, he is expected to recoup it in Russia – and then some. He reportedly will command a bigger salary. He will be taxed at a lower rate than he would have been in the United States, and his team might even cover the tax. Not only that, whatever he makes will not be subject to escrow, as per the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement with the NHL Players’ Association. (A percentage of players’ pay is withheld to assure the revenue split between the owners and players. Players might not receive the face value of their contracts. The players received 57 percent of league revenues when Kovalchuk signed this contract; they receive 50 percent now. That means he might have ended up with less than he expected when he signed.)
The Devils could have fought it. They could have tolled his contract. Kovalchuk would not have been free to sign with anyone else anywhere – or had he tried, the NHL would have fought to prevent him from doing it based on international transfer agreements.
But the Devils didn’t fight it. They made the retirement announcement. They terminated the contract. In other words, they agreed to cut him loose, and because of that, Daly wrote, “the player would not have a conflicting contractual obligation and would be free to sign and play in another league.” (Should Kovalchuk want to return to the NHL, the Devils will control his rights for “an extended period of time,” Daly wrote. So he can’t, say, come back in a couple of years and join the Rangers.)
In a sense, general manager Lou Lamoriello should be furious. Devils fans should be furious. Lamoriello, likely at the urging of his owner, originally tried to sign Kovalchuk to a 17-year, $102 million, back-diving contract in the summer of 2010. The NHL rejected the contract because it felt the deal circumvented the salary cap, and an arbitrator agreed. Lamoriello tried again by signing Kovalchuk to a 15-year, $100 million, back-diving contract that didn’t back-dive quite as much. The NHL and the NHLPA amended the rules, and the deal went through. But the saga didn’t end.
The Devils forfeited a first-round pick as a penalty. They looked foolish shortly afterward when rookie head coach John MacLean made their $100 million man a healthy scratch, and they had to bring back old head coach Jacques Lemaire to get Kovalchuk to play more of a 200-foot game. The 2011-12 season went as the Devils envisioned, with Kovalchuk leading the team in scoring in the regular season and the playoffs as they advanced to the Stanley Cup Final. At least they made that final. That should not be forgotten.
It is debatable how Kovalchuk’s signing and retirement have affected the Devils. Last summer, they watched Parise sign a 13-year, $98 million deal with the Minnesota Wild. After missing the playoffs in 2013, they watched David Clarkson sign a seven-year, $36.75 million deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Had the Devils not given so much to Kovalchuk, could they have kept Parise? Or would Parise have left, anyway? Had Kovalchuk made this decision earlier, could they have kept Clarkson instead of throwing five years and $24.25 million at Ryane Clowe to replace him? Or would Clarkson have left, anyway?
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