- Dmitry Chesnokov via twitter: Kovalchuk’s mom thinks the contract with the Devils will be reworked before the start of the season, and that he isn’t panicking.
- ESPN: The Devils are working on another deal for Kovalchuk. “We want Ilya to be a Devil,” Lamoriello said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. “We will do everything possible to achieve that.”
- James Mirtle via twitter: Nothing from the Kings yet if the 15-year offer is still on the table for Kovalchuk. Mirtle thinks there is a small chance their in it.
- Tom Gulitti via twitter: NHL ‘likely’ won’t penalize the Devils or Kovalchuk.
- Greg Wyshynski of Puck Daddy: Wyshynski puts together more notes on the Kovalchuk fallout. Bruins, Canucks cooperating, Flyers not happy.
- Rich Hammond of LA Kings Insider: Hammond thinks that Kovalchuk could sign a 1 year deal with the KHL or in the NHL, and re-visit free agency next summer.
- Joe Haggerty via twitter: The NHL is looking into Marc Savard’s contract from a statement from the Bruins and Peter Chiarelli. Chiarelli met with the NHL back on Aug. 4th.
- Larry Brooks via twitter: Brooks wonders how the NHL can investigate these contracts without a ‘systems arbitrator? “CBA says it can’t. Of course it doesn’t matter what’s in CBA.”
- Nick Kyreos via twitter: The contracts of Hossa, Pronger, Savard and Luongo have been continuously investigated by the NHL since they were registered.
- Matthew Sekeres of the Globe and Mail: Could the Canucks be okay with Roberto Luongo’s contract being voided by the NHL? They wouldn’t be on the hook paying him until 2021-22, and there would competition where Cory Schneider could take over the number one at some point. A problem the Canucks could also face, is getting him under contract, and under the cap, given that his current cap hit would be $5.33 million, he’d want to sign for more than that.
- Elliott Pap of the Vancouver Sun: Player agent, Kurt Overhardt, doesn’t think the NHL will void Luongo’s, or any of the other three contracts they are looking into. Overhardt felt that Bloch’s decision was ‘subjective’, that nothing in the document said they were in violation of the CBA. The other deals have already been registered by the league. “Any and all speculation that the league is going to claw back these other contracts … would be in complete violation of the collective bargaining agreement and it would be a complete infringement of the players’ rights under the CBA,” Overhardt continued. “Any attempt to do so would be absolutely predatory behaviour by the league, would be in bad faith and not in the spirit of the CBA.”
- Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: An agent has said the NHL won’t rip up the contracts of Pronger, Hossa, Luongo and Savard…
“The NHL isn’t going to do anything with these deals. Nothing is going to happen,” said the agent. “They’ve been trying to investigate most of these deals for a year.”
“I can tell you they certainly aren’t going to rip up a contract that has already been signed and approved by the league.
“That’s the difference: The deal that Kovalchuk signed was never approved by the league. The rest of these deals passed the smell test.”
- Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press: The Red Wings haven’t been contacted by the league regarding the contracts of Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen. “Last October or November, the league requested and we sent all the paperwork in about the negotiations,” Holland said. “Since the Kovalchuk thing, no one has said boo to us about it.”
