Personal Services Contracts ?

[Brent Burns Beard]

Tell me, if the players agree to a cap, what is stopping PHI from giving Roenick a 3m base salary and then on the pretense of nothing to do with NHL, the owner in PHI gives JR a personal services contract to mow his lawn for another 5m per season.

how can the NHL legally stop these kinds of things ??? i mean, is it in their jurisduction to stop two parties from agreeing to a contract outside of the scope of the NHL business ?

dr

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[Buffaloed]

The NFL has rules prohibiting that sort of thing in it's CBA. Teams found to be circumventing the cap are subject to fines and loss of draft picks. The Denver Broncos were recently fined $950K and forfeited a 3rd round pick.
http://www.nflpa.org/Media/main.asp?subPage=CBA+Complete#art25

Section 1. Undisclosed Terms: A Club (or a Club Affiliate) and a player (or a Player Affiliate or player agent) may not, at any time, enter into undisclosed agreements of any kind, express or implied, oral or written, or promises, undertakings, representations, commitments, inducements, assurances of intent, or understandings of any kind: (a) involving consideration of any kind to be paid, furnished or made available or guaranteed to the player, or Player Affiliate, by the Club or Club Affiliate either prior to, during, or after the term of the Player Contract; and/or (b) concerning the terms of any renegotiation and/or extension of any Player Contract by a player subject to a Franchise Player or Transition Player designation.

and

Section 2. Circumvention: Neither the parties hereto, nor any Club or player shall enter into any agreement, Player Contract, Offer Sheet or other transaction which includes any terms that are designed to serve the purpose of defeating or circumventing the intention of the parties as reflected by (a) the provisions of this Agreement with respect to Defined Gross Revenues, Salary Cap, Entering Player Pool, and Minimum Team Salary, and (b) any other term and provision of this Agreement. However, any conduct permitted by this Agreement shall not be considered to be a violation of this provision.

In other words, agreements outside of the standard player contract are prohibited. It's perfectly legal as long as it's negotiated in the CBA.