EHM The Blue Line

Posted: **Wed Sep 01, 2010 10:32 pm**

philou21 wrote:Niemi finally sign with a team and that team is the Sharks. One year deal worth 2 millions only. I bet the Hawks are not really happy with that and Niittymaki too.

Nice, it's now "maybe accepted". Anybody can't post a news without the right information.

Posted: **Thu Sep 02, 2010 4:37 pm**

Now it's finally official: Niemi goes to Sharks

Posted: **Sat Sep 04, 2010 6:43 am**

NHL has accepted New Jersey's 15-year-deal of Ilya Kovalchuk. Whole deal is worth 100 million dollars.

Kovalchuk will be 42 when his contract runs out.

Posted: **Sat Sep 04, 2010 2:37 pm**

It's about time this thing come to an end!

Posted: **Sat Sep 04, 2010 3:52 pm**

I think that NHL embarrassed itself by rejecting first 17-year-deal (102 mills.) and then accepting 15-year-deal (100 mills.).

I don't know Kovie's yearly incomes (of new contract), but i don't think it makes much difference to salary cap than the 17-year-deal.

Posted: **Sat Sep 04, 2010 4:46 pm**

Jypfan92 wrote:NHL has accepted New Jersey's 15-year-deal of Ilya Kovalchuk.

They sure showed him...

Posted: **Sat Sep 04, 2010 4:48 pm**

I think they embarrassed themself more when they said "We're gonna investigated Luongo, Hossa contracts. If they're find guilty contract would be cancelled." Wich not happen as I expected but still, they clearly admit they make faults in the pass. That's not looking like a professional hockey league to me.

Posted: **Sat Sep 04, 2010 5:34 pm**

philou21 wrote:I think they embarrassed themself more when they said "We're gonna investigated Luongo, Hossa contracts. If they're find guilty contract would be cancelled." Wich not happen as I expected but still, they clearly admit they make faults in the pass. That's not looking like a professional hockey league to me.

That's right, too.

Posted: **Wed Sep 08, 2010 8:26 am**

Transfer news:

Fredrik Modin goes to Atlanta with one-year-contract.
Jeff Halpern goes to Montreal with one-year-contract worth 600.000 dollars.

Posted: **Wed Sep 08, 2010 3:30 pm**

Boston Bruins will start partership with Jyp.

Partnership includes player trading etc. Boston's and Jyp's farm teams, Providence Bruins, Reading Royals, D Team and Jyp A-juniors are also part of deal.

Posted: **Wed Sep 08, 2010 4:17 pm**

Nice to see you're getting involved in the NHL.....

Posted: **Mon Sep 13, 2010 7:12 pm**

Appears Lebongo is going to give up captaincy of Canucks to Henrik Sedin.

Posted: **Mon Sep 13, 2010 9:40 pm**

Great move for the Nucks in my opinion.

Posted: **Tue Sep 14, 2010 2:38 am**

The Devils pay a high cost to try to mess with the cap space! I'm surprise to see the NHL harsh like that! It's a good thing though.

Three millions penalty and a third round pick plus a first round pick removed. The third is removed for the 2011 draft and the first round pick can be removed at any draft in the next four years.

Posted: **Tue Sep 14, 2010 12:05 pm**

Yeah, I was really surprised by this. In addition to Kovy contract, NHL and NHLPA agreed to settlement to current CBA. As a result, NHL officials agreed to register the new Kovalchuk contract as it was submitted by New Jersey last week and terminate their reviews of the contracts already registered for Luongo, Savard, Pronger and Hossa.

1. While players and clubs can continue to negotiate long-term contracts (five years or longer) that include contract years in a player's 40s, for purposes of salary-cap calculation the contract will effectively be cut off in the year of the contract in which the player turns 41.

This basically means that if a 33-year-old player signs an eight-year contract, the amount owed to him in the first seven years of the contract will be averaged for the purposes of salary-cap computation. Then, in Year 8 of the contract, the salary he will make for that particular season will determine his salary-cap hit for that season.

So, if Kovalchuk's contract applied to this rule, the average of what he's owed in the first 13 years would be applied to the Devils salary cap from 2010-2023 and the cap hit would be $7.15 million because he is reportedly due to make $93 million across that span. Then, per the reported terms, the cap hit would change to $3 million in 2023-24 (as Kovalchuk turns 41 in April of that season) and $4 million in 2024-25.

2. In any long-term contract that averages more than $5.75 million for the three highest-compensation seasons, the cap charge will be a minimum of $1 million for every season in which the player is 36-39 years of age. That $1 million value will then be used to determine the salary cap hit for the entire contract. If the contract takes the player into his 40s, the previous rule goes into effect.

For example, Savard's contract reportedly calls for him to make $525,000 per season in the final two years of his seven-year, $28 million deal. He will be 38 and 39 in those seasons. If his contract was subject to these new regulations, for purposes of calculating the salary cap the final two years on his deal will reflect as if he was making $1 million. That would make his reported $4 million cap hit go up to $4.14 million.

The club and player still can agree to a contract that pays a player less than $1 million when he is at those ages, but for salary-cap purposes the number applied to the team's annual average salary will be $1 million.

Posted: **Tue Sep 14, 2010 4:12 pm**

I honestly think the penalty against New Jersey was too harsh. They were exploiting the same loophole that several other teams had taken advantage of. Of course, NJ kind of went overboard in the way that they did it but I don't think that merits this kind of punishment. The league rejected the contract and made an amendment to the CBA to close the loophole. I don't see why they should be given such a hefty punishment.

Posted: **Tue Sep 14, 2010 4:49 pm**

I know it's harsh but if the NHL wants to prove the other GM they can be really severe they need to do something like this to "scared" the others.

Posted: **Tue Sep 14, 2010 5:35 pm**

Why do they need to scare the other GMs? They've agreed upon an amendment to the CBA that closes this loophole. Nobody else is going to be able to try one of these deals again.

Posted: **Tue Sep 14, 2010 6:16 pm**

If the penalty was too light or there was no penalty...a precedent would be set, and the only thing stopping someone from trying to do a deal like Kovi's would be the "fear" of having to go to an extra meeting or two to see if the deal was valid. I think that the punishment for Kovalchuk's deal was fair. And I also believe that the Canucks, hawks and perhaps Bruins should have felt the wrath of the league for their deals with Luongo, Hossa and Savard. But the league was not prepared to do the dirty deed that needed to be done until now. Finally Buttman bought some testicles.

Posted: **Tue Sep 14, 2010 6:23 pm**

But nobody could try to pull off one of those deals again. As a result of Kovy's initial contract being rejected, the league and the players association wrote an amendment to the CBA that closes that loophole. Now long term contracts use the average of the 4 highest paid seasons (or something like that ) to determine the cap hit.

I guess it just doesn't sit right with me. The league was partially to blame for this whole thing. They agreed to a CBA with a huge loophole in it. They registered these other long-term contracts that teams handed out to lower the cap hit. They could have rejected them and been done with this already. Instead, they sat by and waiting until it got out of hand before they did something about it. So now that they've finally cleaned up their mess, they penalize the Devils (and only the Devils) for making them have to clean up their mess. To me it makes the league look very amateur.

Posted: **Tue Sep 14, 2010 8:27 pm**

To be harsh like this is also a reason to me to try to "hide" the mistakes they've done.

I understand your point that they didn't punished the other team, I don't know if it's ok to compare it this way but.....In our common life there's always situation like this. It's like a bunch of driver are running at 130 in a 50 zone and just one guy gets caught. He will be severely punished and nobody will make it again. It can sounds stupid but it's the way I see it.

Posted: **Tue Sep 14, 2010 8:33 pm**

But the others were caught. To go further with your analogy, New Jersey was arrested because they vomited on the police officer while Boston, Vancouver, and Chicago were all let go even though they were drunk driving. They're all guilty of the crime but only New Jersey got in trouble because they made Officer Buttman look bad.

Posted: **Wed Sep 15, 2010 12:16 am**

LOL!

They really let go in a way VCR, Boston and Chicago because they didn't cancelled the faulty contracts. I don't know.....maybe they were just tired of looking stupid and then NJ gets everything because the situation as happened this summer. Like we said if they want to go back in the past, they'll embarrassed themself more.

Posted: **Wed Sep 15, 2010 2:51 am**

Not sure if this belongs in here, but I didn't really want to start a new thread...

Just got back from the Leafs-Sens Rookie game here in London. Quick thoughts...
Most impressive players:
Toronto
Gysbers (big, moves the puck well, great shot from the point)
Holzer (steady big d-man)
D'Amigo (fast, good hands, smart)

Ottawa
Lehner (solid in net)
Hoffman (knows how to find the puck and finds open ice)

Unimpressive:
Kadri (was smothered all night, got frustrated late in game and started running guys and taking stupid penalties)
Mueller (sluggish...maybe just tired, but not really effective at all)
Stefanovich (invisible)

However, the one player that really stood out for me, before leaving the game early with an apparent injury, was Sondre Olden! Fast, good puck handler, effective on the forecheck, good positioning. Very impressed with this guy. Sort of reminded me of a taller Pavel Bure, with hints of Forsberg...we can only hope...

Engelage played net for the Leafs. Solid, made a couple nice saves...big kid. Rynnas was backup. Blacker, Irwin and Mitchell were not dressed.

Posted: **Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:25 am**

Eric Belanger goes to Phoenix.

EHM The Blue Line

Official 2010 Off-Season transactions thread