Now, with 12 years remaining on the contract, Kovalchuk stunned the Devils on Thursday by announcing that he is retiring from the NHL to, presumably, go back to Russia to play in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).
Kovalchuk's announcement drew instant criticism, claiming that he was unfaithful and disloyal to New Jersey, who committed so much to the superstar. But, with the contract officially voided and Kovalchuk free to sign with any team he wishes, it seems like the appropriate time to look at this decision from both sides affected by the decision.
Starting with Kovalchuk, he did leave 12 years and $77 million on the table, a large sum of money that any person would love to have coming their way. However, according to the Russian, it was not a decision made about money, but rather family. He would rather go back to his native country where he can be close to his family the entire year and be around people that he grew up with playing the game.
This wasn't an abrupt decision for Kovalchuk, but a rather drawn out decision. He voiced his uncertainty with playing in the NHL at the beginning of last year's lockout-shortened season and made it known how he felt with the Devils front office.
But, lets take a minute and think that maybe this was a financial decision by Kovalchuk. Sure, $77 million is a lot of money, but spread it out over the duration of the remaining 12 years of his contract and he's really only making an average of $6.42 million over that span. Once again, that is a lot of money, but think about this: the KHL doesn't have a salary cap and is known to throw boat loads of money at star players in the hopes of keeping them in Russia and hoping that they don't flee for the NHL.
The brief taste of the KHL that Kovalchuk got last year during the lockout may have been enough to make him want to stay there permanently, but the money must have made that decision a whole lot easier. If he does sign in the KHL, it is likely that he will sign with his former team, SKA St. Petersburg and make a lot more money than he ever would in the NHL. With his yearly salary and bonuses (which have been known to be quite nice) it could very well take Kovalchuk half the amount of time to make the $77 million that he would get back in North America.
As for New Jersey, no matter who your favorite team is, it's hard not to feel a little bit bad for them. After all, it did invest its entire future in one player.
When the league rejected the 17-year contract because it felt that it was circumventing the salary cap, the NHL penalized the Devils by forcing them to surrender a 1st round pick in one of the next several years, a pick they have yet to surrender.
On top of that, Kovalchuk's large contract and AAV (average annual value) made it hard for New Jersey to put together a full lineup (remember the game when it only dressed 15 players because of salary cap reasons?) of NHL-caliber players.
The Devils were forced to let their young star Zach Parise walk in free agency last summer because they were unable to afford his free agent demands. Fast forward to this free agency period and New Jersey had to do the same thing with unrestricted free agent David Clarkson. Burdened by Kolvy's contract, one of the Devils' top-three offensive threats was left to sign with another team because they couldn't find the cap space to fulfill his yearly pay.
Sure, that's the way it goes when you put that much money into one player, but had Kovalchuk really committed to his desires to play in the KHL and not the NHL, it may have allowed the Devils to approach resigning Parise and Clarkson a little bit differently.
Parise would have been hard to resign because he was off to Minnesota before the lockout even began, but Clarkson is a whole different story. He signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs just days before Kovalchuk made his decision to opt out of his contract. Reverse these decisions and Clarkson would most likely still be on New Jersey and things may not look as bleak for the Devils.
It was a shocking decision made by one of the NHL's biggest superstars. Kovalchuk won't be bothered by this decision one bit because he'll be back in his home country still making loads of money, but don't be surprised if this takes the 2012 Stanley Cup finalists a few years to recover from.
*All images courtesy of Google Images*
