NHL reverses Devils penalty in Ilya Kovalchuk contract mess

When the Devils initially signed Kovalchuk to a front-loaded 17-year, $102 million contract, the NHL ruled that it was a violation of the league’s collective bargaining agreement and hammered the team with a hefty fine ($3 million), a loss of draft picks, and rejected the contract, making the team work out a new deal that was eventually worth $100 million over 15 years.

As part of the punishment the Devils were supposed to forfeit the first-round draft pick of their choice over the ensuing four years. The Devils, having yet to forfeit the first-round pick over the previous three years, were going to have to lose their pick in this summer’s draft to complete the penalty.

Kovalchuk stated via press release that he had been contemplating leaving for Russia for the entirety of this season:

Devils manager Lou Lamoriello stated in the same release that he had multiple conversations with Kovalchuk about retiring from the NHL over the course of this past year:

It’s cute how the NHL phrases this news tonight.

“NHL, Devils resolve Kovy contract dispute.“

It’s over.

About an hour after we thought this thing would be pushed back -- again, the word comes down that the NHL and the NHLPA have agreed to new rules on long-term contracts. We don’t know the conditions of the agreement, but we should probably expect that the NHLPA made serious concessions.

Everybody in the hockey world was caught off guard on Wednesday afternoon when the NHL and the NHLPA extended the deadline for the league to make a decision in the Ilya Kovalchuk debacle. Why are the League and the PA cooperating in such fashion, most people asked.

Well, according to Larry Brooks of the New York Post, it’s because the NHL is serious -- very serious, it seems -- about making sure their message on long-term contracts gets through. The League has offered an “ultimatum” to the PA, according to Brooks, saying that they will allow the recently-submitted 15-year, $100 million Kovalchuk contract should the PA agree to certain new collective-bargaining conditions.

Just when we thought this Ilya Kovalchuk thing could finally end -- you know, two months after it began -- we hear this:

That’s Dan Rosen of NHL.com, breaking the hilarious news. That’s what it is at this point: just absolutely, positively hilarious. But seriously, why the delay? Here are a few possible scenarios:

The NHL is waiting until the last possible moment to make a decision on this second Ilya Kovalchuk contract. They have to make a decision by 5 PM Eastern on Wednesday, and if the rest of this crazy, Ilya-filled summer is any indication, they’ll make that decision at 4:59ish.

But on this night before the decision is made, the details of the contract have leaked, at least according to one reporter.

The league will reject the contract. New Jersey knows they will reject the contract. They welcome it. Because they think they can prevail in arbitration.

And I’ll even throw in a bonus prediction. If what I just described occurs, the NHLPA will win arbitration 2.0. Why? Because they will argue that they addressed every issue raised by arbitration 1.0, got rid of the NMC language, corrected the weak-ass tail, and even reduced the term to conform to the age limit of Hossa and Luongo.

On Monday, the Devils met with NHL officials in New York to discuss what may or may not work in submitting a new contract agreement with Ilya Kovalchuk. The talks were “conceptual,” according to NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly.

On Tuesday, Devils officials were in Atlantic City on an unrelated errand, “unable to comment” when asked questions by SB Nation.