Food for Thought: How Richard Bloch Opened a Scary Door
by J.J. from Kansas on Aug 10, 2010 9:48 AM CDT
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PrintWe're less than a day removed from the decision by systems arbitrator Richard Bloch that confirmed the NHL's stance on the Ilya Kovalchuk contract. Since then, many things are being said about what the Kovalchuk decision means not only for the future of long-term contracts, but also for the past. In my post yesterday, I stated that I don't believe that the league will do much about contracts already signed. I still believe there's less danger to existing contracts than there's being made to sound, but Bloch did specifically mention several contracts that are similar to the Kovalchuk deal.
Eric Macramalla at Offside: A Sports Law Blog points out that under section 26.10(b), the NHL does have the authority to look back at other contracts to investigate possible cap circumventions. He does point out though, that the league is not nearly as likely to be able to win one of the previous cases in arbitration. However, after reviewing the wording that Bloch used in the footnotes of his findings, he did see that Bloch did specifically say that the contracts for Chris Pronger, Roberto Luongo, Marc Savard, and Marian Hossa are being investigated with the possibility of withdrawal by the league (a sigh of relief for Zetterberg and Franzen fans).
Here's where it gets interesting. Put on your tin-foil hats and join me after the jump.
It's almost universally agreed upon by hockey fans that the Marian Hossa contract is by far the most similar to the Ilya Kovalchuk contract in terms of years tacked on to the end at very low salary figures that takes him into years where few NHL players are still active. It would stand to reason that if any previously registered contract would get the subsequent axe of the NHL Department of Vague Decision-Making, Marian Hossa's contract would. The question then becomes "exactly what is the league helping here?" The Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup utilizing the services of Marian Hossa under a registered contract. If the league finds circumvention by Hossa and the Hawks in creating that contract, then what of the Stanley Cup-Winning team that used Hossa to help them win the trophy? They had an illegal contract on their roster for one year, the year that was to be their well-publicized "one best shot at winning the cup" and made their goal. I seriously doubt that the league is going to take away Chicago's cup for the one contract (especially considering that, for his salary, Hossa brought less than his fair share to the table for their cup run), but is the league striking a blow against contracts that fly in the face of the Spirit of the CBA or are they helping the Hawks shed the salary they still need to shed? The same could be said if the league challenges the Marc Savard deal, since Boston is having cap issues as well and could very well want to get rid of Savard.
De-registering Marian Hossa's contract after the damage has been done would more seriously call into question the integrity of league decision-makers, who already have several business-before-fair-play questions to answer in light of the way revenue sharing tends to do too little to help struggling small markets, different refereeing standards for regular and post-season play, decisions of which teams the league seems the "favor", and in allowing a television network that doesn't pay the league for the rights to air its games to make decisions on who plays and when. Make no mistake, doing this would cost the league fans.
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i doubt the league will de-register contracts
that have already taken effect. contracts like Savard, maybe, but i doubt so. The NHL got what it wanted (a line drawn). Getting in to a pissing match with the owners could do more harm and make the next round of CBA negotiations ugly.
I Agree
I think the NHL realizes the implications here. Going into the next CBA talks, they want the infighting to be between the players, not between the big clubs and the little clubs, like I think de-registering these contracts might do.
I’m just saying that the league has a history of bad decision-making and Bloch opened the door for them to make one of the worst possible decisions they could. The posturing about the existing contracts is as far as I think the league should go.
by J.J. from Kansas on Aug 10, 2010 10:05 AM CDT up reply actions
Ironic
In a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, Stan Bowman admitted to “managing the hell” out of the cap in an effort to win the Cup last year. If memory serves me correctly, did they not investigate Hossa’s contract last year but come to the conclusion that it was within the parameters and spirit of the CBA? Regardless of whether they feel the contract is rescinded, I can’t see how they can take the Cup away from the Hawks (although fans will forever say that they “cheated” their way to a Cup, but that’s a different argument).
Truthfully, I will be waiting to see what the NHL does with these other contracts before I start to get completely up in arms. If they de-register all of them, then at least we as fans can say “at least they are getting rid of all of them”. While that would show an unprecedented level of consistency on the NHL’s part, it would send the message that these type of contracts are against the spirit of the CBA. However, to your point of who is going to benefit from these decisions, that’s not entirely clear yet. Because of the small number of players that are signing these types of contracts, I don’t think it’s fair to say that the PA has “lost” anything here – yet. However, for the league to step in a year (or more) later to decide that certain contracts are not “legal” is going to call into question their integrity (as you pointed out), especially considering it is only being done in response to 1 obvious attempt to lower a cap hit. If I’m the NHL, I would take the Kovalchuk decision and put in my back pocket for future reference, but would not go back and try to review previous contracts, because this could open up a brand new can of worms.
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Super bowl
If anyone remembers, the Denver Broncos were slapped with a penalty for circumventing the salary cap in 1998 when they won their last Super Bowl.
If the NFL is any indication nothing will be done to change results of already played games, however if it is a deemed that the Blackhawks circumvented the cap and had an unfair advantage from doing so, the most likely scenario would be forfeiture of one or more draft picks as well as a sizable fine for the team and GM.
Ultimately I doubt the NHL would deregister any previously accepted contracts, right now the league has set a limit with the Kovalchuk contract saying this is too far, if they start to go back over previously accepted contracts they would have to set an arbitrary limit at which contracts they will accept and not, and how you allow teams to resign their players, being that extensions can not be offered to players with multiple years left on a contract.
You gotta wonder how stuff like this affects the relationship between the NHLPA and the NHL. This offseason has had a lot of talk about the way that things are spiraling out of control and you wonder how much the Kovalchuk decision will impact. If the league de-registers contracts—things will probably turn from bad to worse between the NHLPA and NHL
That clears it up.
however.. it seems so unconsitutional to have a legal contract sign but then can be altered at anytime. What is the point of siging a contract?… I mean it just dosent seem right.. if its approved and then later on someone else dosent think its right.. then maybe some changed need to be made other places.
well all contracts are subject to league approval and since it was denied initially by the league, Kovy & Co. took it to the hearing and the ruling pretty much sided with the original league ruling.
by Casey Richey on Aug 10, 2010 12:16 PM CDT up reply actions
I'm not convinced the PA went all out on this
I don’t have much proof of this, but I somehow get a feeling the PA didn’t go all out for this. In Bloch’s ruling, it seems the main argument the NHLPA made was that the contract was legit under the letter of the CBA, and that there were previous deals that were potentially similar. I would have expected a much more vigorous argument from them.
There have been points raised by some that there is the issue of escrow and how such a contract like Kovalchuk’s affects the rank and file of the NHLPA. I believe this offseason, the players were dangerously close to not getting their escrow money back.
They had an illegal contract on their roster for one year, the year that was to be their well-publicized “one best shot at winning the cup” and made their goal….(especially considering that, for his salary, Hossa brought less than his fair share to the table for their cup run),
LOL, I love how you basically called out the Hawks for cheating and in the next sentence remind everyone that Hossa was a no show for large parts of the SCP.
Looks like their Stanley Cup might be a little tarnished, hah?
“Tarnished” is such an ugly word. I prefer to simply say that they blatantly cheated their way to a Cup.
And JJ, congrats on being linked to Puck Daddy. To be linked by that glorious website shows that you’re moving…..laterally in the blogging world :)
"I really like the guys who go for the win in overtime" - HNIC's own Harry Neale
Like to keep your communication short and to the point? Follow me on Twitter
Hey, if I hadn’t thrown that piece in about Hossa… well, let’s just say I didn’t want to deal with people coming in and saying “LOL, IT DUZNT MATER CUZ HOSSA SUX IN TEH PLAYOFFS”
by J.J. from Kansas on Aug 10, 2010 3:36 PM CDT up reply actions
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