From the Pressbox: Kovalchuk Walks Away

The free agency frenzy has diminished but there are still some interesting names available. We will note a few of the recent signings and some remaining names and also look at the salary cap room of the teams to see which clubs are still likely to be active.

The retirement of Ilya Kovalchuk from the NHL and his subsequent signing with a KHL club has certainly opened up a new possibility for hockey players. I will share my view of this new frontier and the potential impact on the NHL.

Recent Free Agent signings

Remaining Free Agents

There are still some intriguing names on the unrestricted free agent list three weeks after the start of the offseason feeding frenzy. Unfortunately for them, most of these players have little hope of earning what they did last year, simply because most of the NHL clubs are very close to filling out their rosters.

Consider the following names with their positions, age and 2012-13 cap hits noted below.

Some of the notable Restricted Free Agents include:

Now let's look at the salary cap room for the teams and assume that a full roster constitutes 23 signed players (Teams not listed are at 23 signed roster players):

Clearly these tables reveal some interesting possibilities.

The fact that Ilya Kovalchuk retired, walking away from the last 9 years of his contract with New Jersey, may be a path toward another option for many players to consider bolting to the KHL. Not since, 1972, when the World Hockey Association was able to sway Bobby Hull into spurning the NHL, has such a big name left to join a rival league. Many of the veteran European players who remain unsigned, are expected to take a look at the KHL option. One player, Mikhail Grabovski, has already stated his intention to explore NHL options. He has recently married his long-time Toronto girlfriend and they already have a couple of children, all of which hints strongly that they are entrenched in North America.

My view on the KHL alternative is that it will certainly be a quite alluring for the European players, who currently toil in the NHL and for the next few junior crops of players who have been migrating to North America. We will find out if the KHL model is sustainable. If it is, it may even lead North American born stars to consider the option.

Experts also predict that the NHL's salary cap figure will rise significantly over the next two years. That may help the NHL in fighting off the KHL. It's interesting that this is all happening with the Sochi (Russia) Winter Olympics in February 2013. You have to think that NHL representatives have voiced their concerns and tied them to North American involvement in that upcoming hockey tournament, which is always a focal point of the Winter Games.

The accompanying lists also point out serious cap issues for the Flyers, Bruins, Penguins, Sharks and Oilers, who have spent over the cap and/or must cut down to the 23 player mark. In addition, any of the other clubs, not highlighted above must drop/trade a player if they want to pursue the remaining free agents.

There appears to be something of a "gentlemen's agreement" that teams don't approach other clubs' restricted fee agents with an offer sheet. Imagine the war that would ensue if the Senators signed the Leafs' Nazim Kadri to an offer sheet. They are known to have coveted him going back to hos draft year and ordinarily would love to pry him from their arch-rivals. It's very unlikely to occur, though.

Rolling back the salary cap was a requirement of the most recent labor agreement and teams that had some latitude under the new cap limit of $64.3 M have done a lot better than their counterparts. Those clubs that were caught in the numbers game have paid for it with unprecedented amnesty buyouts and will need to trade more desirable commodities before too long.

Between that fact and the specter of the free-spending KHL owners there will be plenty of fine-tuning of rosters in the next few weeks.

I encourage you to circle back to this space to get my views on all the movement.

Paul Bruno has been writing about the fantasy sports scene for several years and is an accredited member of the sports media in Toronto for over 20 years. You are invited to send your feedback and you can follow him on Twitter (statsman22).