So the NHL made another controversial, media-frenzy-inducing move; it’s just another day at the New York office. With the announcement that they rejected the New Jersey Devils-Ilya Kovalchuk contract worth $102 million over 17-years, this summer’s biggest hockey storybook was given a new chapter. Details why the NHL did not like the deal are tentative, but so far the reasoning says that the deal was rejected “on the grounds that it circumvents the NHL’s salary cap.”

The way the contract was structured – with $95 million paid out over the first 10 years and $7 million over the final seven – the cap hit would only have been $6 million a year; well under the over-$10 million per year that he’ll make starting in year three of the deal. Okay. Maybe the Devils were trying to slip through a loophole, but if there’s nothing that explicitly states that it’s against the rules (and the NHL did not make any indication that it is), is it really fair to reject it?

The NHLPA now has five days to appeal the decision, or the Devils can restructure the deal; also within the next five days. The Devils can’t be happy with their situation. With so little else happening in the offseason, you almost hope the decision is appealed so that this story can carry on into August in time to prepare us for training camp. Or maybe you just don’t care about Kovalchuk anymore, which is fair.

What was supposed to be the longest contract in NHL history almost ironically became one of the shortest. The 17-year contract lasted a day. Now Devils GM Lou Lamoriello has more work and while he did not comment to the press, it was probably for the best as any words he may have certainly couldn’t be printable. The good news in this mess is that while this story will barely be a blip on the radar of sports talk in the US, but Canadian sports networks are already treating it like media gold.