The news on Ilya Kovalchuk and his latest contract with the Devils is... That there’s no news at all. The NHL has a deadline of 5 pm tomorrow afternoon to decide whether or not to approve the apparent 15-year, $100 million contract between the Devils and Kovalchuk. If the league fails to make a decision by then, the contract will be deemed accepted, but don’t get too excited thinking that will happen.
As for what other GMs in the NHL are thinking about this whole process, TSN’s Darren Dreger got to the bottom of things and found out that some executives still aren’t pleased with this contract.
Without knowing the specifics of the contract rival managers are left to consider the speculation that reports Kovalchuk’s latest contract offer to be in the range of 15 years and $100 million.
One NHL general manager doesn’t believe for a second the league will allow this one to pass either, stating Lou Lamoriello, the Devils and Ilya Kovalchuk are simply trying to “disguise circumvention,” adding, “trying to hide the crime, makes this even worse.”
This leads you to think that maybe the NHL will again deny the Devils and Kovalchuk and bring us back to square one all over again and reinvigorate discussion of Kovalchuk perhaps going to Russia. We’ll know more by 5 o’clock tomorrow afternoon at the latest.