It appears the summer/fall of Ilya Kovalchuk has FINALLY reached an end with his latest contract set to be approved by the NHL. Since he became a free agent back on July 1st, Kovy has been courted by the Los Angeles Kings, lured repeatedly by the KHL, had a press conference, became a free agent again, and has had three contracts submitted on his behalf to the league with only the last one finally being good enough.

The league will sign off on a 15-year $100 million dollar contract with a $6,666,667 salary cap hit making the 27-year-old’s contract tie Rick DiPietro’s for longest in NHL history. Kovalchuk will be 42 when his contract expires with the team.

With his approved contract comes an amendment to the current collective bargaining agreement. Contracts such as Kovy’s, Roberto Loungo’s, Marian Hossa’s and Marc Savard’s will be grandfathered in.

Per Darren Dreger of TSN.ca (who was the first to break the approved deal)

These changes only apply to long-term contracts (contracts defined as five years or longer).

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.

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).

GM Lou Lamerioillo will now have to get under the $59.4 million salary cap before the start of the regular season with training camp just weeks away. While Kovalchuk has been in Russia training with Alexander Ovechkin as the two prepare to do a charity game with their respective all-star teams a picture provided by Puck Daddy’s Dmitry Chesnokov showed that Kovy possibly knew where he would land as his practice jersey is that of the Devils.

Behalf of Sergey Zikov and myself we are beyond glad to put this story that has taken up the majority of the off-season to bed.

While the off the ice stories have been piling up this summer with signings, rejected contracts, and KHL poaching’s it was revealed on Friday that Edmonton Oilers goalie Nikolai Khabibulin was found guilty on two of three DUI charges in Phoenix, Arizona. The 37-year-old Yekaterinburg native was pulled over back on February 8 where he was charged with speeding, driving while intoxicated, and impaired to a slight degree.

The latter of those charges were tossed out but the Bulin Wall was sentenced to 30 days in prison which is the minimum sentence one can receive under Arizona law yesterday. Khabibulin and his lawyers have already submitted an appeal which could take several months. The Oilers expect the goaltender to enter the NHL’s substance abuse program as well as be in camp once it opens.

It would be his second year of his four year contract with the team which he signed for $15 million. He only featured in 18 games last season due to injury but did reach career win 300 before heading to the injured reserve.

Like a never-ending nightmare, the Ilya Kovalchuk summer has yet to find a resolution as a new proposed contract has been denied by the NHL according to reports earlier today. Sources claim that the framework is still not up to the league’s standards as the team is still pushing for the 27-year-old Russian to get at least 15 years.

It has been reported that during his visit at the World Hockey Summit in Toronto KHL President Alexander Medvedev claimed he had a missed call from Kovalchuk’s agent Jay Grossman but the reason for the call is unknown at this time. While this saga has been drawn out for months now it would not totally be a shock if the winger decided to play for the KHL where salary caps don’t exist and circumventions are unheard of.

Will this tale have a happy ending for the Devils and it’s fans? Or will Kovalchuk dismiss the notion of ever getting the money he wants in the league that made him a star and return home? It appears we should know in the coming days as training camp is already approaching.

You might as well write “sike” across the picture above as it appears the summer of Kovalchuk is far from over with confirmed reports surfacing that arbitrator and New Jersey native Richard Bloch has ruled in favor of the National Hockey League to uphold the rejection of the 17-year contract the winger signed that would pay him $102 million thus making null and void.

The 27-year-old Kovalchuk, who is in Russia preparing to train with friend Alexander Ovechkin is once again a free agent and I predict he might just sign with in the KHL with SKA St. Petersburg being the obvious choice. There is a possibility that the Devils can restructure his contract and you would believe they have no choice after re-introducing him to the media after the contract was signed and marketing him on the website moments later.

The Los Angeles Kings were the other team involved in negotiations and reportedly offered a contract worth $80 million over 15 years before Kovalchuk signed with New Jersey.

What happens next is anyone’s guess but rest assured we are far from any kind of closure surrounding the most sought after free agent in the last decade.

While introducing new signings Evgeni Nabokov and Denis Grebeshkov, KHL and SKA St.Petersburg president Alexander Medvedev announced that long-time NHL winger Maxim Afinogenov planned to join his club for the upcoming season. Afinogenov agreed to join the club for the next five years after the Atlanta Thrashers wouldn’t meet his demands.

The 30-year-old winger had a breakout season with the Thrashers recording 61 points for the first time since 2006. He came to the Thrashers on the cheap, signing a $800,000 contract after playing his entire career with the Buffalo Sabres where he only tallied a combined 48 points in the prior two seasons. He becomes the latest NHL’er to defect to the KHL and the third to SKA. Afinogenov previously played for the now defunct Dynamo Moscow of the now defunct Russian Super League.

In 651 games, Afinogenov had 158 goals and 237 assists for 395 goals. He could return to the NHL at 35 but I doubt his market value will be any higher than it was now.

For the second time in a decade Denis Grebeshkov has left the NHL for the motherland signing a two-year contract with the KHL’s SKA St.Petersburg. While the terms have not been released, it appears it is more than $3.15 million he made last year with the Nashville Predators. You may recall Grebeshkov first left the NHL and the New York Islanders in 2006-2007 opting to play for his hometown Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the now defunct Russian Super League.

He returns to Russia and joins the likes of Evgeni Nabokov who signed with SKA earlier this month alongside former NHL’ers Sergei Brylin, Alexei Yashin, and Sergei Zubov. It appears Alexander Medvedev continues his quest to lure every single Russian NHLer back to Russia with reports that he is still not over losing Kovalchuk.

With Grebeshkov, SKA adds a solid blue-liner who has recorded just 84 points in 227 NHL games he will compliment Zubov quite well in my opinion and should give Nabokov less to worry about in their debut campaigns. The 26-year-old also played with the Los Angeles Kings and Edmonton Oilers. At such a young age he will likely return when the money is right.

On the same day the Los Angeles Kings lost a Russian-speaking player they gained another by signing free agent and Ukrainian-born Alexei Ponikarovsky to a one-year deal worth $3 million. Known as Poni, the 30-year-old winger who spent most of his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs before being traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins last year comes to LA with 266 points in 493 games.

Having gone over the 50-point mark just twice in his career, Poni isn’t necessarily a replacement for Alexander Frolov who signed with the Rangers today(in case you didn’t know) but will hope to pick up the slack that saw him booted from Toronto with a young team who has way more potential than the Leafs did.

He will receive a $200,000 signing bonus and a new number as captain Dustin Brown will likely relinquish it. A new team, a new number, and probably a new website lie in store for this old Poni but I suppose it could be worse because let’s face it folks at least he’s not a Ranger.

Minutes ago the New York Rangers have announced the signing of winger Alexander Frolov on the team’s website. The 28-year-old Moscow native comes to the Big Apple after spending his entire NHL career with the Los Angeles Kings where he recorded 381 points in 536 games. The contract is said to be one year for $3 million compared to the $2.9 he made last season.

The two-time 30 goal scorer comes to the biggest market after seeing his beloved Kings drop him from the first line to the third last with head coach Terry Murray questioning his drive. According to SovSport in Russia, Frolov turned down a four-year $20 million contract with the KHL and will decide after this upcoming season where to commit long-term.

The addition of Frolov should compliment Marion Gaborik, as the Rangers seem to have found their one-two punch for this season at least depending if they are paired together on the top line. Despite having an “off-season” Frolov would have been third in scoring when comparing him to the Blue Shirts roster from last year with 51 points and could also serve as a mentor to young Artem Anisimov.

Despite being omitted from the 2010 Olympic roster, Frolov has represented Sbornya in 2006 in Turin along with the World and World Junior Championships. He will wear a new number as Ryan Callahan already speaks for #24.

After reintroducing Ilya Kovalchuk to the media on Tuesday afternoon the New Jersey Devils discovered his 17-year $102 million dollar contract was rejected the NHL. Hours following the press conference TSN broke the news that the league claimed Kovy’s contract, that would keep him with the Devils until he was 44, was a circumvention of the collective bargaining agreement.

The NHL’s issue is the amount of money that is paid to the 27-year-old sniper towards the latter stage of the rejected contract where he would earn a league minimum of $550,000 in the last five years. The NHLPA has until 5 p.m. Monday to file a grievance on behalf of Kovalchuk, which would be decided by an independent arbitrator. Should they do so there could be a long drawn out legal process between the two sides which could take weeks.

It is interesting to note that the Devil’s vice president of hockey operations, Steve Pellegrini, wrote much of the current CBA with the NHL when he was employed by them in 2005. He will now go head-to-head with his former colleagues on whether this really truly circumvents any part of the agreement.

Kovalchuk’s contract isnt the first of it’s kind with the length and money as TSN notes that:

Other players have signed similar front-heavy contracts that bend the parameters of the collective bargaining agreement. Roberto Luongo has a 12-year deal with the Vancouver Canucks worth US$63-million that will expire when the goalie is 43. Henrik Zetterberg and the Detroit Red Wings have a 12-year contract that has him earning US$67.65-million in the first nine seasons, but only US$5.35-million in the final three. Johan Franzen’s 11-year deal with the Wings is good until he’s 40 and pays him US$39.5-million in the first eight seasons, but only US$4-million in the last three. Goalie Rick DiPietro got a 15-year deal from the New York Islanders, and two-time NHL MVP Alex Ovechkin has a 13-year pact with the Washington Capitals. Kovalchuk’s deal topped all of those.

The three scenarios that remain for the Devils and Kovalchuk are as follows:
1. The NHLPA files a grievance and the Devils and Kovalchuk wait for the arbitrator to be hired and then make a ruling.

2. The Devils and Kovalchuk convince the NHLPA not to file a grievance and restructure the contract so that the league will approve it.

3. Kovalchuk convinces the NHLPA not to file a grievance and the Devils and Kovalchuk agree to part ways, putting Kovalchuk back on the open market.

as per Fire&Ice

So just as the summer of Kovalchuk was all but done it seems we are at a crossroads with no end in sight just quite yet. Stay Tuned.

The NHL’s most prized free agent has finally found himself a home. Tver native Ilya Kovalchuk has announced that he will not be moving anywhere, but instead remaining with the New Jersey Devils. Despite receiving lucrative offers from multiple other clubs, from the NHL to the KHL, Kovalchuk may have taken the grandest of them all.

No. 17 signed a 17-year deal worth a reported $107 million that will keep him with the Newark-based club until 2028. For those wondering, Ilya will be 45 years old by that time. To put that titanic number into perspective, his contract will span longer than the term of a Supreme Court Justice, longer than the Devils arena deal at the Prudential Center, longer than the state of New Jersey has existed and yes, longer than the half-life of Uranium-238.

To say he sold his eternal soul to the Devils may be the best way to put it.

The man needs little introduction. He’s been one of the finest goal-scorers in the NHL since he came into the league with the Atlanta Thrashers. Six straight 40 goal seasons, multiple All-Star selections and a Rocket Richard Trophy, there are few better gun-for-hires in the world. But one thing has eluded him throughout his NHL career to date – the Stanley Cup playoffs. With only nine playoff games on his resume, some may question his pedigree when the games matter most – but make no mistake, he now has the power to dramatically effect the Atlantic Division for quite some time as a member of the Devils.

The Devils have an entirely new reason to hope. It’s no secret that Brodeur probably will not be in the league for too much longer. A new icon is needed once the winningest goalie of all-time retires. Kovalchuk, 27, has every opportunity to become the new Devils icon. He provides a different energy, a different tempo and perhaps most importantly, a very marketable name. The Devils ranked only 21st in attendance during the regular season, rarely filling the arena to capacity. Kovalchuk should help tremendously in that sense while also attracting more national media to a team that doesn’t get as much as it seems like they should with the success they’ve had.

It’s a gamble, no doubt. But a gamble well worth taking, from a marketing and competitive stance.

From a divisional rival, the signing of Kovalchuk means one big thing. Quick-Strike Offense. The Devils as we know them, have been a defensive trapping team for the last decade. Guided by talismanic goaltender Martin Brodeur, the Devils have been the definition of that team you hate to play against, as it’s often more exciting to watch a Sequoia grow. But now with the addition of Kovalchuk, they add an elite scorer.

Now it has to be said, that Kovalchuk’s transition to the Devils way was not as smooth as a baby’s ass. You could say he still never adjusted. But the longer time he spends at the Rock, the more lethal he can become. Mixing the defensive excellence that always does well when it comes to the playoffs with a scoring tandem such as Kovalchuk and Zach Parise, the rest of the coaches in the Eastern Conference will be having nightmares about how to properly defend such a combination – if there indeed is one.

While there is concern about what the Devils could become, there is also a sense of happiness. Happiness that the Devils dealt out a downright outrageous contract. Regardless of who the player may be, contracts of 10 or more years always come with a ton of risk – this one especially, as more than half of it is paid after Kovalchuk’s 35th birthday. Will he really be as lethal of a scorer into his mid-30′s? History is not on his side. Of 50 goal scorers in the past, nearly every one of them begins to regress around that time – most never even reach 30 goals again after they turn 35 – a statistic which the Devils certainly would have known when they gave him the contract. A 17-year contract makes him now extremely static.

Will it work out? Can Ilya put his name on the Stanley Cup? He has 17 years to do it.

(Editor’s note: LOU, YOU ARE FORGIVEN FOR LETTING BRYLIN LEAVE)-SM