New Jersey Devils Sign Ilya Kovalchuk For A Sporting Eternity

Charles Klein

Ridiculously long contracts. It's what the kids are into these days. The Islanders, Flyers, Capitals, Penguins and Blackhawks did it. Now the New Jersey Devils are doing it. The Devils have reportedly signed star winger Ilya Kovalchuk to a 17 year deal. I'm just going to ask you to think about that for a second.

That's only four years fewer than the years I've been alive. Most NHLers are lucky if their careers last that long. While the details of the contract remain shrouded in mystery, the lengths that Kovalchuk and the Devils went to get this deal done are shocking. 17 years is a bloody long time.

I do think that this contract will be like the 12 year deals signed by Duncan Keith and Marina Hossa of the Chicago Blackhawks, where the contracts were heavily front-loaded so that neither player would be a major drain on the franchise's cap space as the contracts wind down. The same is likely true of the Devils' deal with Kovalchuk.

This deal indicates one of two things for Kovalchuk. He either really wants to win a Stanley Cup and thinks the Devils give him the best chance to do that, OR the Devils put in an out clause wherein after a certain number of years he has the option to opt-out and return home to mother Russia. While such a contract is unprecedented, it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case.

The Devils may have been more willing to put the opt-out clause in Kovalchuk's deal and that, for me anyway, is why he chose New Jersey over Los Angeles. Were I in Kovy's position, I probably would have chosen Los Angeles for a few reasons: 1) Their corps of young talent is unmatched 2) They were pretty close to advancing in the playoffs 3) and playing at the Staples Center in Los Angeles trumps playing in Newark, NJ.

But having already rejected a pretty nice offer from the Atlanta Thrashers, 12 years $101 million, I suspect that Kovalchuk wanted to have the best of both worlds: to compete at the highest level and if that didn't happen soon, to be able to go home to Russia and get paid. I doubt the Thrashers would have offered Kovalchuk anything like that.