It’s safe to say that Ilya Kolvachucks’ decision to retire from the NHL was something more premeditated that many thought.
In fact March gave me a heads up via a text message and was like – KOVY IS RETIRING! and the first thing I said was –
(had to add a Queenie reference there!)
Anyway I said – No way, and if he is, he will be playing in the KHL and sooner rather then later.
So, are players just going to be able to ‘Retire’ instead of honouring their contracts? (Although lets face it – his contract was awful..in so many ways!) But retiring and making it official takes you off your employers books. you are essentially free of whatever contractual obligations you had. What if Roberto Luongo, who is in a very similar contractual position, said he was going to retire? (Doubtful as he has no other credible options, as Kolvachuk does in the KHL) but you get what I mean.
From the Devils stand point I think they possibly see it as a blessing in disguise. They no longer have to honour is huge ridiculous contract and get out of it pretty much scott free.
I may add that it’s debatable that due to honouring his deal they lost out on a lot of space to accommodate other much needed talent or go after Paraise and others of his quality.
But I digress back to my last point. My concern here is what kind of precedence this sets for contracts in the future. Lets face it here, clubs and players are one in the same – they are savvy and will be looking for loop holes out of their own stupid decision making and discontent if needed. After the lockout this year and all the meetings, and discussions that came along with it, it really surprises me they overlooked incidents such as this.
I just hope this doesn’t become a regular occurrence in the NHL for players and teams to void their stupidity!
marchhockey.com 