On the 22-year anniversary of the Edmonton Oilers trade of Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings, the NHL has achieved another victory; this time a much different one. Arbitrator Richard Bloch has decided in favor of the NHL in regards to the ludicrous 17-year, $102 million contract offered by the New Jersey Devils to Ilya Kovalchuk. With that decision, 2010’s hottest unrestricted free agent is back on the market, and New Jersey may not win out a second time.

Nobody could have predicted this decision because the NHL has never seen this kind of situation before. Some think that the contract offer is the result of Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek putting pressure on GM Lou Lamoriello; a classic situation of the owner getting too involved in matters he doesn’t understand. The deal tried to exploit one of many loopholes in the Collective Bargaining Agreement by having Kovalchuk make $95 million of his deal over the first 10 years at a cap hit of $6.5 million.

The Devils may not have been legally incorrect to offer Kovalchuk the deal, but thankfully, common sense won the day when Bloch decided that they were trying to circumvent the cap. So it’s back to the drawing board for NJ, and other teams can get back into the mix, including the in-again, out-again Los Angeles Kings. It’s already been speculated that Kovalchuk may consider going back to Russia to play in the KHL, but that does not seem very likely.

The NHL prevailed, but they can only blame themselves for getting into this situation. This is not the first time a contract like this has been offered under the new CBA, it’s just the first time it’s been blatantly exploited. In an attempt to keep player salaries and owner expenses down, how the NHL could not foresee this kind of increase is incredible. The salary cap ceiling has grown almost 50% in the half-decade that it’s existed. Imagine what it would be by the end of a 17-year deal, should the trend continue. The NHL won this battle, but they are far from winning the war.