NHL looking into Luongo's deal
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 | 4:13 PM ET
By John Molinaro, CBC Sports
Roberto Luongo recorded 40 wins last season for Vancouver. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)First, it was Ilya Kovalchuk. Now, it's Roberto Luongo.
Vancouver Canucks general manager Mike Gillis confirmed in an email to the Vancouver Sun that the NHL is taking another look at Luongo's 12-year, $64-million contract.
"We have complied with the NHL request for information and are awaiting further instructions," Gillis told the Sun. "Cannot say anything further at this point."
The all-star goalie signed the deal with the Canucks last September and is set to begin this season.
The terms of the front-loaded contract will see Luongo paid $10 million in 2010-11. In the final year of the deal when he is 43, Luongo will make $1 million. The goaltender's salary cap hit over the 12 years is $5.33 million.
On Monday, arbitrator Richard Bloch rejected Kovalchuk's 17-year, $102-million US contract, signed last month with the New Jersey Devils.
Bloch sided with the NHL, which rejected the deal the same day Kovalchuk and the Devils officially came to terms, arguing that the Devils attempted to circumvent the league's salary cap.
Bloch's ruling has opened the door for the NHL to challenge recently signed front-loaded contracts given to Luongo, Chicago Blackhawks winger Marian Hossa, Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Chris Pronger and Boston Bruins centre Marc Savard.
"Each of these players will be 40 or over at the end of the contract term and each contract includes dramatic divebacks," Bloch wrote in his ruling.
"Pronger's annual salary, for example, drops from $4,000,000 to $525,000 at the point he is earning almost 97 per cent of the total $34,450,000 salary.
"Roberto Luongo, with Vancouver, has a 12-year agreement that will end when he is 43. After averaging some $7,000,000 per year for the first nine years of the agreement, Luongo will receive an average of about $1.2 million during his last three years, amounting to some 5.7 per cent of the total compensation during that time period."
The National Hockey League Players' Association argued that since the aforementioned four contracts were approved "with structures similar" to the Kovalchuk deal, then Kovalchuk's deal with the Devils should also be approved. Bloch disagreed.
"The apparent purpose of this evidence is to suggest that the [NHL's] concern is late blooming and/or inconsistent," Bloch wrote.
"Several responses are in order: First, while the contracts have, in fact, been registered, their structure has not escaped league notice: those SPCs [standard player's contracts] are being investigated currently with at least the possibility of a subsequent withdrawal of the registration."
