The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

The NHL owners are their own worst enemies.

During the 2004-05 lockout, didn't we hear repeatedly how salaries are getting out of control, small Canadian market teams are threatened and a hard salary cap was needed to stop the madness?

And now the NJ Devils hand out a 17 year, $102 million contract for free agent Ilya Kovalchuk. 17 years!!!!

Salary cap rules state the cap hit is the average amount of the contract per year, not what it is actually paid in salary for the year in question. So this front-loaded Ilya contract, which pays $6.5 million a year for a couple of seasons, will increase to $11.5 million for a few years before eventually decling to the final $550,000 salary for the last four years.

And why do I think he'll have retired by the time he reaches 40 and not play until he's 44 years old, the year his contract is actually finished?

It's a loophole GMs have found as a way to get players under their team salary cap and still pay top dollar for the star free agents.

Why are the owners insisting on shooting themselves in the foot with these contracts? And the Devils aren't exactly a hotbed of hockey, even though they have won three cups in the last 15 years. There are tons of empty seats even though they have a winning team. So how can they afford it?

I imagine when the next CBA expires, the NHL will have clause stating the amount paid to the athlete during the year is what will count towards the team's salary cap. This might be the only way to enforce the cap the way it was meant to without putting restrictions on contract lengths, as the NHLPA would likely have an issue with that.

In any case, tell me again why we had that lockout a few years ago? I just don't get it.