An Overpaid Contract

The NHL brass has recently approved the latest Ilya Kovalchuk contract via arbitration after two (2) months of keeping the Devils superstar waiting in the wings on his future for the upcoming NHL season. The Arbitration Board agreed with Lou Lamariello (Devils' GM) and okay-ed the deal recently. Many people in hockey circles and various fans, including the nefarious well loved NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman had believed, the contract offered was way too high in price and the amount of years he could still play needed to be lowered. Lest we forget, this same group vetoed the first contract of 102 million dollars and 17 years playing time saying it was "preposterous". Instead of that offer sheet, they relented and have conceded to a 100 million dollar deal for 15 years.

AM I missing something here? Not since the days of Wayne Gretzky, Jagr, and other highly paid athletes who have helped rewrite the contracts book for NHL salaries from 1990 on, have we seen this kind of wheeling and dealing to get an individual signing done. When only one player in NHL history has made as much money as we see these new Jersey Devils paying for their Russian sniper now, you must ask yourself; "where did they find that pot of gold anyway?" Supposedly, Jaromir Jagr was the highest paid NHL player ever during his entire career of 17+ years to make this kind of cash for his abilities, (let's not start to count the millions that has come from product endorsements of other famous companies too) and yet here in 2010, along comes Kovalchuk and he gets this huge salary money in one major contract offer. He's already twenty seven years old and has maybe ten good years left barring any serious injury(ies) yet to come.

How is it than in most professional sports, teams will pay an uber amount of dollars to sign a pro athlete like this to their program? Look at LeBron James and Chris Bosh of the NBA, Miami Heat for example, both will receive110,000,000 million dollars for themselves, over,a six year span, while another team-mate Dwayne Wade only received a paltry 107.000.000 million.

What amazes me is that teams in practically all sports will actually pay this kind of exhorbitant cash and signing bonuses to get an athlete to stay or join their program. How come it is, oh say 20 years ago, when one hundred thousand dollars was enough to get by, we now are willing to pay millions amounts of dollars to play in most professional sports today? Where can we honestly draw the limit today, or is there really one if at all? You must also remember that in Kovalchuk's offer sheet the NHL Player's Association also wanted this to happen and the top brass of Gary Bettman and company vitually agreed, so how far will everyone involved here, go to appease one team's wishes. Now, lo and behold theparties involved are saying this contract will be one of the "last of its kind for hockey players" as the NHL bargaining agreement comes to an end in Sept. 2012.

Hey Mr.Bettman is it too late to put a stop to the Blackhawks Marion Hossa deal, or the Canucks Roberto Luongo's situation? Both are similar, getting a lot of money to play until they are way past their prime. Kovalchuk is in that genre also, but come on people, with the world on the brink of a major recession who in their right mind ever thought we would see this kind of high priced money paid for a hockey player to enjoy a game? Leave me a comment as to whether you agree or disagree? thank you.