Gary Bettman has settled on a punishment for the Devils attempt to circumvent the CBA rules with regard to their original efforts to sign Kovalchuk. According to ESPN, the Devils were fined $3 million (does not count toward the salary cap) along with losing a 3rd round pick next year and a 1st round pick in one of the next four years (Devil's choice of which year).
While this may seem a little harsh on first blush - it does send a big message to the rest of the GM's and teams that the league will not stand by while teams make creative attempts to avoid the cap. Let's face it - the original contract was sketchy (paying him $550,000 in the last 6 years until he was 44 yrs old). This is especially tough considering GM Lou Lamoriello was part of the team negotiating the new CBA. Some reporters feel the Devils got a break here and that it could have been worse --- they could have counted the fine toward the cap, took away more picks, increased the fine, etc.
One last note -- DP's contract always gets lumped into the conversation about these long-term contracts. It's important to remember that DP is getting significantly less money than the others mentioned (Kovalchuk, Luongo, Hossa, and Ovechkin). I think the league reached a fair penalty here. Lou can squawk all he wants about not doing anything wrong here.... but as they say, sometimes the mere appearance that something is up is as bad as if something was actually up.
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