OT: Kovy retires? What?

[FlashyG]

The owner of Ikea can't fund a team? There are no Finnish tycoons in the oil business? Norway sure pumps a lot of oil from the sea.

The owner of IKEA is actually a Dutch company that I'm sure is not interested in losing millions of dollars on a sports team.

There are likely Finnish Oil men out there, but none in the top 25 biggest oil producing companies in the world, Russia has 4 or 5. Norway has one company in the top 25, but if I remember correctly its partially owned by one of the Russian oil giants.

Eventually the expansion will allow the KHL to draw some other European players away from the NHL, but I don't see them ever really affecting the level of Hockey we're accustomed to here.

 

[FlashyG]

Watch for Datsyuk to get an insane offer that he considers after year 1 of his 3 year deal...

Holland was on the Fan590 in Toronto today and addressed the Kovy situation.

He said he has no problem with the Devils letting him go because it was the best for both sides. He said if the same situation happened with Datsyuk, the Wings would fight it.

We'd have nothing to worry about though, there would be tons of Swedes out there dying to take his roster spot.

 

[RedWingsNow*]

Holland was on the Fan590 in Toronto today and addressed the Kovy situation.

He said he has no problem with the Devils letting him go because it was the best for both sides. He said if the same situation happened with Datsyuk, the Wings would fight it.

We'd have nothing to worry about though, there would be tons of Swedes out there dying to take his roster spot.

Easy to say today.
But in two years, Datsyuk is 37. Not many centers in NHL history have been able to go through their late 30s without losing steam. What if he slips to a 40-50 point guy in the first year of his contract.
Now you've got 2 years left on a declining player with a $7.5M cap hit.

From Datsyuk's perspective, the signing bonuses make the contract top heavy.

So maybe after year 1 of the contract, some Russian team offers him double the money. And maybe the Wings have a chance to use that $7.5M cap on someone else.

 

[BeersHockey]

I'm not sure what the leagues debt is, but many teams themselves operate at huge losses and are deeply in debt.

Here is some of the teams debt as of April this year.

Real Madrid £600million (Appx 911 Million US dollars.)
Manchester United £359.7million (Appx 546 Million US dollars)
Barcelona £369.5million (Appx 560 million US)
Arsenal £104million (Appx 156 Million US)
AC Milan £298.8million (Appx 454 Million US)
Juventus £48.65million (Appx 74 Million US)
Liverpool £237million (Appx 360 Million US)

The Billionaires that run the KHL teams don't seem to care that they are losing money on them, they are status symbols like yachts and incredibly expensive cars...they are acceptable losses considering the amount of money they make from their businesses.

KHL owners seem to be treating that league the same way, although on a far smaller scale.

With the payroll of some of the rich teams combined with the size of most of their arena's you would have to charge insane amounts per ticket to even have the possibility of turning a profit.

Eh, don't think you are getting what debt means. Carrying debt and operating at a significant loss year by year are two completely different things. In a couple years the Red Wings (or Illich's holding company) will have a couple hundred million in debt on the books for a new rink, plus player salary liability, plus etc etc with no guarantees of paying it off "x" years. You pay your interest, you pay your obligations, you pay yourself - no one goes broke, and (like your house) you pay your debt off in 30 years. Much different than consistently going in the hole $50-$100mm per year in perpetuity.

 

[BeersHockey]

What's this need to punish the player?

By the way, HHOF is the hockey hall of fame. Not the NHL HOF.

Not sure he has the stats. 816 career points and walked away from the game? This isn't Pavel Bure, who was forced from the game. Attitude has as much to do with it than anything. But if you think that anyone from the KHL wil everl be inducted into the hall of fame when there is 4 spots every year, you are kidding yourself. It is the NHL HOF, other people are let in for show.

Edit: Kovy was exactly a ppg player, and then walked away at his peak. Not enough points to get in the HOF on its own, and didn't test himself to get there by longevity of career. Sorry Kovy, До свидания!

 

[GuloGulo]

The owner of IKEA is actually a Dutch company that I'm sure is not interested in losing millions of dollars on a sports team.

There are likely Finnish Oil men out there, but none in the top 25 biggest oil producing companies in the world, Russia has 4 or 5. Norway has one company in the top 25, but if I remember correctly its partially owned by one of the Russian oil giants.

Eventually the expansion will allow the KHL to draw some other European players away from the NHL, but I don't see them ever really affecting the level of Hockey we're accustomed to here.

Norway's oil giant Statoil is to two-thirds owned by the Norwegian state itself.

IKEA is indeed owned and controlled by the Kamprad family, the Dutch foundation is only a facade for tax construct schemes.

 

[RedWingsNow*]

How many NHL points did Larionov score?
How many NHL games did Tretiak play?
If Kovalev plays 5-6 more years in Russia, he'll have earnedit

 

[RedWingsNow*]

Norway's oil giant Statoil is to two-thirds owned by the Norwegian state itself.

+1 for Norwegians
Why shouldn't the entire country benefit from natural resources

 

[Bench]

We'd have nothing to worry about though, there would be tons of Swedes out there dying to take his roster spot.

I think it's pretty obvious given the state of the Red Wings we should be more concerned about losing Swedes than Russians. That's why I'm showing my support.

 

[FlashyG]

Easy to say today.
But in two years, Datsyuk is 37. Not many centers in NHL history have been able to go through their late 30s without losing steam. What if he slips to a 40-50 point guy in the first year of his contract.
Now you've got 2 years left on a declining player with a $7.5M cap hit.

From Datsyuk's perspective, the signing bonuses make the contract top heavy.

So maybe after year 1 of the contract, some Russian team offers him double the money. And maybe the Wings have a chance to use that $7.5M cap on someone else.

The Wings would still absolutely fight it.

I don't think they'd be able to use that 7.5 million as he's signed to a 35+ deal that can't come off the books.

 

[RedWingsNow*]

The Wings would still absolutely fight it.

I don't think they'd be able to use that 7.5 million as he's signed to a 35+ deal that can't come off the books.

Ah... the age thing throws a wrench into it. Probably right then.

 

[Tomas W]

I hope IIHF ban him from the olympics, that would be funny.

There will be certain IIHF members againts that!

 

[Tomas W]

That's the real tragedy here. Guy was in the upper tier of players. We're losing a top 10 NHL player in his prime.

He'll be back for season 14-15, with the wings.

 

[Tomas W]

IKEA is own (in the end, no matter how the holding companies are situatied to avoid taxes) by Ingvar Kamprad and his family. Ingvar Kamprad is most known as a Scoorge McDuck, and wont ever support anything sports related anywere, but IF he would he would support a club in either his home (soon to be exhome) in Switzerland, or his old (soon to be new) home in Småland.

 

[SoupNazi]

Watch for Datsyuk to get an insane offer that he considers after year 1 of his 3 year deal...

Datsyuk will play here until his contract is up, offer or not.

 

[Shoalzie]

Seeing the Kovalchuk stuff from yesterday should make everyone appreciate Datsyuk that much more...

 

[crashman]

Seeing the Kovalchuk stuff from yesterday should make everyone appreciate Datsyuk that much more...

What Kovalchuk did was just ridiculous, I don't think it has anything to do with Datsyuk.

 

[Brick Top]

I think it's pretty obvious given the state of the Red Wings we should be more concerned about losing Swedes than Russians. That's why I'm showing my support.

No joke- we're 1 or 2 more Swedes in the regular lineup away from changing the team colors to blue and yellow. And I eagerly anticipate CB's reaction when that happens

 

[BeersHockey]

How many NHL points did Larionov score?
How many NHL games did Tretiak play?
If Kovalev plays 5-6 more years in Russia, he'll have earnedit

Nope. Those guys were placed in as ambassadors. There was no path cleared for Russians in the NHL for Tretiak or Larionov at the start of his career. So, do you think Radulov deserves to get in if he continues to lead the KHL in points for the next 10 years?

 

[pdd]

The Devils could use the leadership and never quit attitude of Daniel Cleary. Daniel will never leave you Lou!

Just watch Lamoriello signing Damien Brunner after this...

Would not be surprised at both of those, actually. They did well in the playoffs and could do well for the Devils.

Don Lou solves things tomorrow...

FORWARDS
Patrik Elias ($5.500m) / Travis Zajac ($5.750m) / Michael Ryder ($3.500m)
Ryane Clowe ($4.850m) / Adam Henrique ($4.000m) / Damien Brunner ($3.500m)
Dainius Zubrus ($3.100m) / Andrei Loktionov ($0.725m) / Jaromir Jagr ($3.000m) (+1.500 bonus money)
Rostislav Olesz ($1.000m) / Ryan Carter ($0.775m) / Steve Bernier ($0.775m)
Krystofer Barch ($0.750m) / Stephen Gionta ($0.563m)

DEFENSEMEN
Andy Greene ($3.000m) / Marek Zidlicky ($4.000m)
Bryce Salvador ($3.167m) / Mark Fayne ($1.300m)
Anton Volchenkov ($4.250m) / Adam Larsson ($0.925m)
Peter Harrold ($0.800m)

GOALTENDERS
Martin Brodeur ($4.500m)
Cory Schneider ($4.000m)

OTHER
Buyout: Trent Hunter ($0.667m)
Buyout: Eric Boulton ($0.250m)
Buyout: Ilya Kovalchuk ($0.250m)
------
CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled with the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $66,145,834; BONUSES: $2,800,000
CAP SPACE (23-man roster): 1,204,156

Schneider will likely be the 1A, if not the outright #1.
I don't see Lou signing Jagr for even that kind of money unless less than $1m is guaranteed, and the bonuses are fairly tough. Especially if he ALSO signs Brunner (who, at that cap hit, is absolutely a disgusting and overpaid signing.)
Jagr's bonuses probably would be something like minimum GP (41+, not 10), 30 goals, 60 points, division championship, and playoff bonuses like making playoffs/conference finals/Cup finals/winning Cup (perhaps a bonus by round plus minimum GP percentage?).

I know I wouldn't make bonuses easy for guys like Jagr, especially for potentially large cap hits. And the fact you have him slotted for the third line on a team that doesn't have a lot of money further makes that a point.

even if datsyuk wanted to leave, i don't think he would bail out on his contract with the wings.

seems like too much of a character guy to do that

It's unlikely, especially since he is only signed for an additional three years.

If I were Lou, I would have suspended Kovalchuk (a la Nashville/Radulov) upon learning of his "retirement"; this prevents the "forever" recapture, and lets the team avoid it in the future if he comes back in three or four years. He'd skip the big years for bigger years in Russia, (preventing any recapture) and it would also prevent the need for "30-team approval" to return to the league.

Hopefully Holland does that with Dats if he skips out Kovalchuk-style (not that I expect him to; he's much older and near ACTUAL retirement).

 

[InjuredChoker]

It's unlikely, especially since he is only signed for an additional three years. If he does, however, the recapture would suck ($2.5m for two years if he retires in 2015, $2m if he retires in $2016).
.

Datsyuk's deal is +35 contract. The whole cap hit would stay if he retires.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Nope. Those guys were placed in as ambassadors. There was no path cleared for Russians in the NHL for Tretiak or Larionov at the start of his career. So, do you think Radulov deserves to get in if he continues to lead the KHL in points for the next 10 years?

Yes, the should call it the NHL hall of fame if they want to look at it otherwise. If Radulov winds up leading the KHL in scoring 10 times he absolutely deserves to be in the HHOF.

 

[stu the grim reaper]

to all you saying kovalchuk "deserves" to be in the HHOF

the fact that they are only 3 non-north americans, only 2 college grads, no women, and only one person with any connection to amateur hockey on the HHOF selection committee is just proof it's nothing more than a weirdly absolutist NHL hall of fame

 

[BeersHockey]

Yes, the should call it the NHL hall of fame if they want to look at it otherwise. If Radulov winds up leading the KHL in scoring 10 times he absolutely deserves to be in the HHOF.

Difference of opinion I guess. It is quite clearly the NHL HOF, which also celebrates hockey from around the world. Will there be an exhibit re: the KHL? Sure, just like there is for the Canada Cup, the WCs and the Olympics. But those non-NHL players aren't (and shouldn't be) admited as individual inductees.

 

[RedWingsNow*]

Nope. Those guys were placed in as ambassadors. There was no path cleared for Russians in the NHL for Tretiak or Larionov at the start of his career. So, do you think Radulov deserves to get in if he continues to lead the KHL in points for the next 10 years?

I think Radulov would need to show, somehow, at the international level, that he's an elite player.

Kovalchuk has been a great goal scorer at the NHL level and is undeniably one of the best players in the game.

I find it amusing that people that if Kovy stayed in North America and scored 20 goals a year for 5 years and finishes with 500 goals, people punch him in as an automatic.

Over the course of his career, nobody scored more. He's one of the game's greats.
Going to Russia doesn't change that, IMO. He's got a chance to add to his legacy in the Olympics, world championships and KHL.

Might not be a first ballot guy, but he's a lock

417 goals in 800 games of the dead puck era is pretty spectacular to me.