Savard’s Agent Slams Bettman

After the NHL spiked Ilya Kovalchuk’s massive 17 year, $101 million dollar contract, the league began looking into similar deals inked by other big-name players. Marc Savard’s contract was among the handful being re-evaluated by the league, and the NHL is even considering voiding the contract entirely. This news did not sit well with Savard’s agent, Larry Kelly, who dropped the hammer on Gary Bettman:

“I’d really like to see a true-commissioner -style , someone who has the best interest of the game in mind rather than the situation they have now… Bettman is (more like) the president of the league and he clearly is on the owners side on every issue. I really think it should be a commissioner. With a commissioner you have somebody who is totally independent and I think it would be a much less acrimonious situation.”

{Puck Daddy}

Does Kelly have a point here? Is the NHL over-stepping its bounds by threatening to void signed contracts? From a legal standpoint, the members of the NHLPA are employed by the league, and the NHL is well within their rights to terminate or revoke contracts as it sees fit. This situation really begs the question – where was Bettman when these deals were signed off on by the league? Why choose to re-evaluate these contracts right before the NHL starts working on a new collective bargaining agreement? Kovalchuk’s contract clearly struck a nerve within the NHL administration, and they had to draw the line with these ‘front-loaded’ deals at some point, but it seems a bit crass to threaten players like Savard and Hossa with the possibility of revoked contracts.

Yeah, the NHL has the right to do what they want with the contracts they issue, but the timing couldn’t be worse – if the league decides to start spiking more deals, they’ll agitate an already grumpy NHLPA, and further complicate the delicate process of establishing a new CBA.

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