Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Bettman Trying To Fix His Own Loophole

01/09/2013 at 9:58am EST

from Cam Cole of the Vancouver Sun,

Alas, deciphering the Luongo Rule itself — that’s not an official name, but its wide usage is something of a feather in the salary cap of the Vancouver Canucks’ finagler-in-chief, Laurence Gilman — is not so easy.

What it really ought to be called is Gary’s Revenge, a petulant add-on to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, one which aims to punish those teams that dared to exploit the loopholes Bettman left in the last CBA, by signing star players to long-term, front-loaded contracts.

Most of those deals were drawn up with the full knowledge that the players in question would probably be long (or at best a little) gone from the game by the latter, low-salaried years of their contracts, but in the meantime, the salary cap hit would be averaged out over the full term, allowing for more maneuverability for the teams.

All perfectly legal under the old CBA. But embarrassing to Bettman, who left the barn door open as a passel of his best horses slipped through, while protesting that the deals were against the spirit of the CBA. It makes you wonder what all that expensive legal help the NHL engages does for a living, if it’s not to close loopholes before they bring down the house.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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