Morning Reading: Ilya Kovalchuk Signs 17-Year Deal
Records were made to be broken. Even if some of those records seem utterly ridiculous. Until yesterday, the longest contract in NHL history was viewed by many as a joke. The
New York Islanders
traded away a goalie that would end up being pretty darn good –
Roberto Luongo
– so they could draft a goalie they would give a 15-year deal too –
Rick DiPietro
. Many laughed at the time. Many still do. Include me in that bunch.
The Ilya Kovalchuk situation is slightly different in that he’s a proven commodity. With the Atlanta Thrashers, he became a star. With the New Jersey Devils, he’ll be the face of their franchise for the next 17 years. And that can be considered a good thing.
Kovalchuk still has plenty of hockey ahead of him. Plenty of good hockey. Whether it’s 10 years or 17 years only time will tell, but the Devils were able to hold on to him for around $6 million a year (he’ll earn over $100 million over the life of the contract). Not a bad cap number at all for someone of Kovalchuk’s abilities and talents.
The contract is still the laughing point though. 17 years?!? Careers rarely last that long. By the time the contract ends, Kovalchuk will be 44 years old and just have finished his 25th season in the NHL (not counting the strike year during which he played in the Russian Superleague). It’s not impossible – Chris Chelios and Gordie Howe did play in parts of 26 seasons (Howe played 32 if you include the WHA) – but it’s highly improbable. Kovalchuk can still contribute for a long time, but staying great is another story.
Regardless, the Devils did the right thing. They got a player in his prime and locked him up. The Los Angeles Kings were pushing hard for Kovalchuk and seemed to have the inside track several times. By offering Kovalchuk a long deal and the stability of a team consistently in the playoff hunt, New Jersey secured one of the league’s superstars.
Switching leagues, another young superstar got paid. For now at least. After revising his deal, the Tennessee Titans will pay running back Chris Johnson somewhere around $2.5 million for the 2010 season. This is up from the $550,000 he was scheduled to earn as stipulated in his contract – a figure that would have made Johnson the lowest paid RB on the Titans’ roster.
The Titans and Johnson have yet to agree on a long-term deal with the guaranteed money the star back was looking for, but this is a step in the right direction. A step that gets him to training camp, which is what both parties wanted. What he does in the upcoming season could secure that bigger deal.
And with that we move on to sports betting. In football betting there’s much more than just who will win and who will lose. You can bet on virtually anything. How many yards someone will gain. Who will score the first touchdown in a particular game. Even the results of a coin toss. So the bet here is whether or not Johnson will break Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing yardage record in 2010. I’m going to say he won’t. I’ll even go one step further and say not only will Johnson not rush for more than 2,105 yards, but also say he won’t surpass his own 2009 total of 2,006 yards. That doesn’t mean I don’t think Johnson can do it some year, I’d just put my money on 2010 not being the year. Of course, as always, take any advice I give out at your own risk.