NHL, players’ association could miss deadline on Kovalchuk contract

The two sides were to reach a deal by 5 pm today.

The NHL and the league’s players’ union are apparently deadlocked in negotiations over superstar Ilya Kovalchuk’s contract with the New Jersey Devils. Kovalchuk signed a $100-million, 15-year deal with the team. The NHL says that the deal violates the league’s salary cap rule, which sets limits on how much a team can spend on player salaries each year. While the contract is technically in line with regulations, the fact that Kovalchuk is too old to play out the entirety of the contract means that he’s effectively being paid more per playing year than the salary cap allows. The NHL and NHLPA had set a deadline of 5 pm today to reach a deal, but that now looks unlikely.