Rangers Sign Tim Kennedy
In a surprise move the Rangers have signed 24-year-old forward Tim Kennedy to a one year deal worth $550 K. The main thing about this contract is that it was just a one way deal. Great contract for him by Sather.
Kennedy was bought out of his deal with Buffalo last month after being awarded $1 million dollars in arbitration. During his rookie season last year he posted 10 goals and 16 assists in limited minutes.
The Rangers already had an enormous amount of 3rd/4th line players signed and this contract just stiffens up the competition. Some moves are going have to be made with this many players, but you can be pretty certain that Kennedy will make the team and it might not be a bad thing(see below) with his potential as a great grinding 3rd line player, but players like Sean Avery, Brian Boyle, Todd White, etc. are going to have be on full force during camp.
That goal was just filthy and you can clearly see he has some speed and skill.
Devils and Kovalchuk Reach Agreement? Under Review
First reported by Nick Kypreos and now by Darren Dreger it appears the Devils and Ilya Kovalchuk have agreed with a deal of about $100 million over 15 years.
An arbitrator recently rejected the $102 million over 17 years the two sides had previously agreed upon because it circumvented the salary cap or in other words they tried to cheat the system.
This contract is about the same money over two years less so the cap hit would increase approximately $600K if the figures are right and keep him under contract until he is 42.
The money, years, and cap hit have never been a problem with me. The problem was that if he is going to get $95 million by the time he is 37 why stay around the rest of the time for $7 million more. It was pretty obvious they were making the deal so he can retire early. As long as this deal is paying him $3 or so million for his 38, 39, 40, seasons etc. I will be fine with it because then it means there is a chance he stays on the cap the whole time instead of retiring early and allowing Lou to have his cake and eat it too.