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Will League Review Suter/Parise Contracts?


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Now that the structure of the contracts is public showing the final 3 years paying almost nothing just to lower the cap hit... do you think the league reviews these and maybe doesn't allow them?

There are arguments on both sides of the equation as to whether the league would do this:

1. It is a good news story that a small market place gets these guys.

2. Going into a CBA negotiation, they really don't want to see these contracts and they will certainly be illegal going forward. they may want to put a line in the sand right now by refusing these contracts.

3. These barely follow the letter of the law in that they don't go past 40, but they are pretty clearly cap circumvention contracts which were supposed to be stopped when the Kovalchuk contract was signed.

4. There are rumblings that the league wants the new CBA to alter the rules on how these types of contracts are calculated as far as cap hits are concerned. I don't think anything will change on existing contracts (too many teams have them)... but it is possible.

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I don't think they will either. These contracts go until they are 40, which isn't completely unreasonable. I think Kovalchuk's deal went until he was 42 or 43 which is getting into Chelios territory. Maybe 40 is the limit for the NHL to take issue with it?

I do think the NHL should do something about these obvious cap circumventing deals. My idea is that the team should just take the cap hit straight up. No averaging it out over the length of the deal. There would be no incentive (other than job security) for these super long contracts.

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Guest BuckFoston

Or they could all have an epiphany and realize how grossly overpaid everyone is. Never going to happen. I don't know what's worse, management ponying up this kind of ridiculous cash or players thinking that what they do is actually worth the money and length they are asking.

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I don't think they will either. These contracts go until they are 40, which isn't completely unreasonable. I think Kovalchuk's deal went until he was 42 or 43 which is getting into Chelios territory. Maybe 40 is the limit for the NHL to take issue with it?

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they make a rule where the last few years can't be less than half the first few years?

For Parise, first two years are 12M each, and last two are 1M each. I think the Talbot(?) contract was vetoed as well because of that reason, or a similar one.

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True but after that contract was the time they said "no more of these" and decided to let the existing ones like Luongo's stand.

These ones were signed with the full knowledge that they are not really allowed to happen/ I suspect they won't review them, but only because it is Minnesota that signed these guys and it helps parity.

If they went to Philly or some big market team I think they would have been reviewed and disallowed.

The wildcard is how Bettman thinks these affect the upcoming bargaining. It really weakens your position that the league needs player to give up % of revenue when even smaller franchises can spend $200 million on 2 players.

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they make a rule where the last few years can't be less than half the first few years?

For Parise, first two years are 12M each, and last two are 1M each. I think the Talbot(?) contract was vetoed as well because of that reason, or a similar one.

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Guest BuckFoston

How do we know the players even think that? They may be thinking "holy crap, I can't believe those idiots will pay me this kind of money" all the way to the bank.

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If that is the case and you are really that concerned you say hey, that's too much, I'll take half of that or whatever. I know, crazy notion. But it's not impossible, I've done it, I've known people who did it. It doesn't mean you have to be poor. But if someone tells me here is 5 million bucks for doing your work and I know what I do is not worth anywhere near that, I'll decline. You can still afford multiple houses, cars, yachts, and private travel on much less than that.

Besides, as shown by some of our own players like Burrows, there are guys who will take a pay cut because they believe in something greater and are not greedy bastards. I doubt Burrows is living on food stamps with his multi million dollar salary even after the pay cut. A couple of mil a year is more than sufficient for these people.

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Some players will do that, but there are also plenty that will chase the money wherever.

Not saying either Suter or Parise are like that, but I can't see how either of them can honestly think they are worth that much.

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I think it's best to just fix the problem in the upcoming CBA and put all this stupidity behind us. There needs to be an upper limit for contract length and value per year. Max 6 years and something like 8M/per. A bit room to adjust upwards based on performance, age, re-signing (team loyalty) and stuff like that. That keeps the trading market fresh and the FA market rolling. If nothing changes, the future will be that all players will be signed for over 10 years and the money tied up to them will prevent dealing with 75% of the teams, because they are in the same situation with everyone.

Stupid example:

Garth Snow would like to sign Jassen Cullimore to a 6-year deal worth $42M. Because Jassen is a loyal NY Islander and re-signs for the 3rd time, GM Snow can exceed the max. salary of 7M by 500K, for reaching some goal amount the previous year, Cullimore is also eligible for another 1M and so on. This way even Garth Snow can't completely ruin an organization for a decade, even if he doesn't understand the value of a player.

Sounds stupid when written like that, but kinda in the same way it works for many people in the working class. A kindergarten teacher. There is a minimum pay, and then 'bonuses' for age, previous work experience, education for example. This is an example of how it works in the real world. Why shouldn't it be adjusted to work in a similar way for professional athletes?

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This contract was approved and endorsed by Gary Bettman...

2009-10 $7,400,000

2010-11 $7,750,000

2011-12 $7,750,000

2012-13 $7,750,000

2013-14 $7,500,000

2014-15 $7,500,000

2015-16 $7,500,000

2016-17 $7,500,000

2017-18 $7,000,000

2018-19 $3,350,000

2019-20 $1,000,000

2020-21 $1,000,000

...As instructed by Mike Illitch. It's Zetterberg's.

The last three years are retirement years. It's been going on for awhile now. Cheers.

TOML

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If Detroit or Chicago do it, it's fine. Bettman wants to keep those markets strong.

If it's New Jersey or Minnesota, I'm not so sure...

I thought Luongo, Hossa, Zetterberg and Kovalchuk's were supposed to be the last of these. Kovalchuk was about the same age as Parise and Suter when he signed his 15 year contract, and New Jersey got fined heavily for it.

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