Famed GM Brian Burke, now with the Toronto Maple Leafs, is calling for an end, or more scrutiny, of these absurd long term deals that GMs are handing out. There are obvious perks behind these deals, as I detailed in a previous post. Burke at least wants the new CBA (to be negotiated in 2012) to have a limit on the length of contracts, or at least have some scrutiny behind such long-term deals:

“We absolutely need to look at term limits,” Burke told THN.com Friday afternoon, before embarking on a week-long west coast vacation with his wife. “I personally do not believe some players have any intention of fulfilling some of these long-term contracts.”

While I don’t think anyone expects Chris Pronger to play until he’s 42 (remember, he’s Pronger, not Chelios), Burke does bring up a valid point. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the deals these players are signing, but it is a big loophole in the system, and it makes the salary cap look like a joke. Personally, I think it’s ridiculous to sign a player for 15 years, but that’s because of the risk involved in signing a player for the better part of two decades.

With the current CBA set to expire in 2012, you can bet that some GMs will make a push to put some kind of restriction on these long term deals. It will be a hotly contested issue though, as teams like Detroit and Washington, who used these deals to lock up franchise players like Zetterberg, Franzen, and Ovechkin, all players that the teams drafted and developed on their own. The issue seems to heat up when teams are poaching UFAs for these deals, according to Tom Benjamin, who believes that teams like Philadelphia and Chicago are circumventing the system when signing Pronger and Hossa. The issue really comes to a boil when discussing Pronger, who’s extension doesn’t kick in until he’s 35. But since Pronger signed the deal before he reached the magic number, Philly isn’t on the hook for the entire salary cap hit.

Burke and Benjamin aren’t the only ones who believe some major CBA shakeup is in the works for 2012. Adam Proteau of THN believes it’s inevitable. The issue is hotly debated amongst the NHL owners, GMs, and Gary Bettman. It is almost a foregone conclusion that there will be a restriction next year.

Personally, the issue seems to stem from signing players to deals that expire in their mid 40s. I personally don’t believe the NHLPA will agree to a restriction on length of deals, but may agree to a provision much like the 35+ clause in the current CBA. Let’s say that any player signed to a contract longer than, say five years, that extends past the players’ 38th birthday, the cap hit cannot be removed by player retirement or passing through waivers.

Clearly the verbiage needs work, but you get the general idea. Think that would work?

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