NHL Rejects Devils Huge Contract

Less than 24 hrs after the New Jersey Devils signed star free agent Ilya Kovelchuk, the NHL have opted to reject this contract calling it a "retirement contract".  A retirement contract, is a long term contract that stretches out the annual cap hit making it reasonable to sign the player now, knowing he will retire before the full term comes to an end.  Is it fair to assume when someone will retire?

I'll let you be the judge, the break down of the rejected contract looks like this;

SEASON		NHL SALARY	AGE		CAP HIT
2010-2011		$6,000,000	28		$6,000,000
2011-2012		$6,000,000	29		$6,000,000
2012-2013		$11,500,000	30		$6,000,000
2013-2014		$11,500,000	31		$6,000,000
2014-2015		$11,500,000	32		$6,000,000
2015-2016		$11,500,000	33		$6,000,000
2016-2017		$11,500,000	34		$6,000,000
2017-2018		$10,500,000	35		$6,000,000
2018-2019		$8,500,000	36		$6,000,000
2019-2020		$6,500,000	37		$6,000,000
2020-2021		$3,500,000	38		$6,000,000
2021-2022		$750,000	39		$6,000,000
2022-2023		$550,000	40		$6,000,000
2023-2024		$550,000	41		$6,000,000
2024-2025		$550,000	42		$6,000,000
2025-2026		$550,000	43		$6,000,000
2026-2027		$550,000	44		$6,000,000

  
So as far as the NHL is concerned, they feel (as do the rest of us) that Kovelchuk will retire well before he hits 44 years old.  Not to mention the fact that after the first 11 years of his contract he will make $98.5 Million Dollars of the 102 million.  This works out to, what should be, an $8.95 Million Dollar cap hit (as opposed to the $6 Million Cap hit) if it wasn't for the remaining 3.5 million spread over Kovy's retirement years.

This contract looks very similar to the deal that Marian Hossa signed with the Chicago Blackhawks last year, locking him up for 12 years (until he's 43) $63.3 Million contract with an average cap hit of $5.275 Million.  Hossa will make $1 per year over the final 4 years of his contract.  You can check it out at Cap Geek right here.

Now, Since this is a Red Wings blog, I'm sure I'll hear complaints and comparisons to the contract that Henrik Zetterberg signed or the Johan Franzen deal, and people pointing fingers that these contracts are in the same category.

Lets break those down.

Henrik Zetterberg - 12yrs - $73 Million

SEASON        NHL SALARY AGE     CAP HIT
2009-2010       $7,400,000        29     $6,083,333
2010-2011       $7,750,000        30     $6,083,333
2011-2012       $7,750,000        31     $6,083,333
2012-2013       $7,750,000        32     $6,083,333
2013-2014       $7,500,000        33     $6,083,333
2014-2015       $7,500,000        34     $6,083,333
2015-2016       $7,500,000        35     $6,083,333
2016-2017       $7,500,000        36     $6,083,333
2017-2018       $7,000,000        37     $6,083,333
2018-2019       $3,350,000        38     $6,083,333
2019-2020       $1,000,000        39     $6,083,333
2020-2021       $1,000,000        40     $6,083,333

Johan Franzen - 11yrs - $43.5 Million
SEASON        NHL SALARY AGE    CAP HIT
2009-2010       $5,500,000        30     $3,954,545
2010-2011       $5,000,000        31     $3,954,545
2011-2012       $5,250,000        32     $3,954,545
2012-2013       $5,250,000        33     $3,954,545
2013-2014       $5,000,000        34     $3,954,545
2014-2015       $5,000,000        35     $3,954,545
2015-2016       $5,000,000        36     $3,954,545
2016-2017       $3,500,000        37     $3,954,545
2017-2018       $2,000,000        38     $3,954,545
2018-2019       $1,000,000        39     $3,954,545
2019-2020       $1,000,000        40     $3,954,545

Both these deals put Hank and the Mule to 40 years of age, a common age for players to retire, and both with a reasonable decline in salary.

New Design

So with my triumphant return to the blogging community, I've also taken some time to re-vamp the look of the site. Blogger has added some new features during my brief hiatus, so I was playing with new layouts to enhance the look and feel of the site. I'm still not sure if I love the look yet, but it's a nice refreshing change to bring in Sabotage 2.0.

Away from the blog

So I've been away for quite some time and haven't blogged in a while.  Shockingly, I've received a few (but not many) requested to get back to adding my random thoughts to the internet.  The bulk of my ramblings have been about the Detroit Red Wings, with a sprinkling of whatever I feel worthy of sharing with the world.  Due to a major change in my daily schedule, I find myself with more time to write, and thus, the blog gets a revitalization.

I hope you all enjoy "I'm Telling Y'all It's A Sabotage" version 2.0.

It's not over 'till it's over...

On back-to-back nights the Detroit Red Wings proved they play the game until the final buzzer sounds.

Detroit @ Edmonton - March 19th, 2010

Detroit @ Vancouver - March 20th, 2010

Letterman is getting old...

Late Night host David Letterman is getting old, both literally and figuratively. I could use his grandpa humour and stale approach to late night as an example, but that would be too easy. In stead, I noticed this gem in the closing segment of his show on Tuesday night. Typically he tells the viewers at home to stay tuned for Craig Ferguson before his show ends. It's a small showing of support for the CBS teammates, and it's common place for the 11:30pm hosts to pitch to their after-midnight counterparts. Conan O'Brien (as host of The Tonight Show) on NBC always made the pitch to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, just as Leno before him often gave the introduction to Conan's Late Night Show.

Etiquette aside, the point I'm trying to make, is that Letterman has been throwing to Craig Ferguson for over 5 years. In January of 2005, Craig Ferguson was hired as the replacement for Craig Kilborn on CBS's Late Late Show.

Watch this clip from Tuesday night (Feb 09, 2010), as the Late Show with David Letterman is wrapping up, Dave clearly says "Craig KILBORN is next... Goodnight everybody!" but someone in post production caught the mistake and brutally dubbed in Ferguson's proper last name. It was like the bad overdubbing from low budget Japanese films. It's in the first 2 seconds of the clip, so feel free to rewind and read Dave's lips. He clearly throws to Craig Kilborn.

Without Even Playing, Detroit Moves Into The Playoffs

With an off-night on Monday, the Wings still managed to move into 8th place in the Western Conference thanks to a St. Louis Blues victory over the slumping Calgary Flames. In losing their 6th straight game the Flames now have played more games than the Wings with the same number of points, thus bumping them down to 9th in the West.


Aside from San Jose and Chicago, the West is still pretty tight. If the Wings can put together a decent winning streak similar to what the Canucks and Avalanche have done, they'll be right back near the top of the conference where they belong. With players like Kronwall, Lilja, Williams, and maybe even Franzen set to return shortly, this group will have the players needed to make a strong push in the second half of the season.

It's never a great strategy, but in addition to winning some games of our own, we need to rely on some unlikely allies to help us out. For example, tonight, I will be a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs. (that just felt wrong typing it) The Leafs are playing the Kings, and a Leafs win in regulation combined with a Wings victory over the Coyotes will provide some breathing room in 8th over Calgary, as well as pull us closer to two of the teams we are chasing. It's a big night, and I hope the boys know it.

Back-to-Back Shootout games

So after the controversy surrounding Detroit's Shootout loss yesterday against Dallas, the boys had to put that all behind them and face a red hot Chicago Blackhawk team today at Joe Louis Arena.

Again, this one needed extra time to settle the deadlock, and the Wings eventually lost in the 4th round of the skills competition. Fortunately this shootout didn't have any blown calls, but it did have 2 beautiful goals scored by Pavel Datsyuk and Todd Bertuzzi. (If only one of them had scored yesterday we could have avoided the drama in the 6th round)

Watch Pavel's patience and Todd's spin-a-rama below.

You have GOT to be kidding me...

Plain and simple... the NHL and Toronto War room have screwed the Red Wings YET AGAIN.

I honestly believe that when an NHL game is broadcast, they should play the conversation between the war room and the on ice officials. Maybe then we'd actually know why a call was overturned. I'm sure Rob Martel tried to explain it to me, but conveniently his mic cut out during his announcement.

In this particular scenario, Detroit and Dallas are in the 6th round of the shootout and we are still tied. Auld and Howard have been spectacular. Dallas selected Steve Ott, who tried to slide a backhand between Howard's legs, only to have Howard's backward momentum carry the puck towards the goal line, but never across.

As rare as it seems, The NHL official was in the perfect position and make the proper call on the ice at the time of the play. In the picture you can see Martel on the left side in perfect position to make that call. His call on the ice was 'no goal' (thanks to Paul at A2Y for the image)

Because it was so close, they opted to call the war room in Toronto to review this play. From the footage we were shown, there wasn't any concrete evidence to show the puck had crossed the line.

In a review situation like this, the rules are simple:

1. The entire puck must cross the goal line, not just a portion of it, the entire puck.
   
2. There must be concrete visual evidence to overturn the call made on the ice at the time of the play.)
   

After a lengthy review provided us enough time to watch 5 different angles of the play in slow motion it seemed inevitable that the call on the ice was accurate. After the commentators became bored reviewing the play because they couldn't make a case for a good goal, Rob Martel's conversation with Toronto concluded and they deemed the call to be overturned and a goal awarded. Thus resulting in a Shootout win for Dallas, and more importantly, a lost point for Detroit in the heated race for 8th spot in the West.


I'm sure all you non-Wings fans will comment about 'conspiracy theories' and the fact that Gary Bettman and his crew don't have a hidden agenda when it comes to the Red Wings, but the proof in in the videos below, and this is getting pathetic. Someone, somewhere explain to me HOW this was overturned!?

In addition to this example of NHL brilliance during Wings games... check out some others from recent memory.

May SCORES... or did he?

Kronwall's hit deemed illegal

Quick whistle costs Wings