A source close to the Ilya Kovalchuk contract situation confirmed to THN.com the league and the NHLPA have agreed to implement new rules governing the parameters of long-term contracts.
In exchange for approving the Kovalchuk contract and not putting limits on the number of years a contract can run, the league will now calculate the value of long-term deals that extend past a player’s 41st birthday differently and there will be no cap benefits past 40 for any player who is signed. In other words, a low salary in the later years of a deal that extend into a player's 40s will not be calculated into the average annual salary of the contract.
Ken Campbell, author of the book Habs Heroes, is a senior writer for The Hockey News and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog appears regularly and his column, Campbell's Cuts, appears Mondays.
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