Hossa's deal could be in question
The NHL has given the NHL Players Association an ultimatum Wednesday night in regards to front-loaded, long-term contracts and this could make Marian Hossa's contract void along with Ilya Kovalchuk (Devils) and Roberto Luongo (Canucks).The NHL agreed to grandfather the contracts of Marian Hossa, Ilya Kovalchuk and Roberto Luongo into the collective bargaining agreement if the NHLPA agreed to certain conditions over the salary cap. If these conditions aren't met, the NHL will de-register Luongo, reject Kovalchuk's contract, and investigate Hossa's 12-year $63.3 million deal.
The conditions are:
1. That the cap hit on future multi-year contracts will not count any season that ends with the player over 40 years of age. The cap hit would be based on the average salary of the seasons in the contract up to age 40.
2. That the cap hit on future contracts longer than five years would be calculated by granting additional weight -- perhaps the average -- to the five consecutive years with the largest average salary.