A 15-Year Contract

The NHL training camps are just around the corner, and the Islanders are out of the gate quickly in the annual race for most insane contract, reportedly on the verge of signing Rick DiPietro to a 15-year, $67.5 million contract.

Reuters

DiPietro: Open wide and say 15 years.

A year ago, the NHL apparently discouraged the Mike Milbury Islanders from signing DiPietro to a similar long-term deal. But the Milbury-to-Smith-to-Snow Isles are persistent. Fifteen years. Aside from so-called "lifetime" contracts and reserve-clause era serfdom, I'd think this is about the longest deal in NHL history, and as the story notes, one of the longest in pro sports:

The deal is believed to be the longest in NHL history and second only in major North American pro sports to the $25-million, 25-year deal Magic Johnson signed with the NBA Lakers in 1981.
Newsday says DiPietro is scheduled to receive $4.5 million in each season of the contract. With the value of the deal spread over the length of the contract, DiPietro's salary would rank eighth among NHL goaltenders for the coming season. And Newsday says it would leave the Isles $2 million under the current salary cap.

I'd love to read the fine print on this one because it's probably pretty creative (opt-outs? Retirement? Dealing with the usual "I wanna go play for a Stanley Cup contender 'cause this team's going nowhere" 30something line?) This from Newsday:

Although DiPietro is guaranteed the full $67.5 million if he suffers a career-ending injury, it's not yet clear what would happen should he decide to retire before the deal expires. For now, Islanders fans only can hope he has a long and glorious career.

Wonder if there's a cost-of-living escalator in there, too, for a goalie who appears to have locked himself in at $4.5 million per. Lots of questions, too, for the Islanders (as usual), pinning their hopes on a 25-year-old (almost, anyway) goalie. And what is Gary Bettman doing? Besides the vein popping out of his forehead, that is.

(UPDATE, 11 a.m. - Islanders have called a 3 p.m. press conference to announce the signing.)

Comments

[Carla]

'on the verge of signing Rick DiPietro to a 15-year, $67.5 million contract'

If I were an Isles fan, I would need to go lie down right now in a dark room with a cold washcloth on my forehead.

[karim]

and i thought i had heard it all! these islanders make me wana be a die hard leaf fan! honestly! what the heck is charles wang thinking of? he musta got snowed in by his g.m.! how did this guy become so wealthy? lotto 649?!? unreal!!!!

[Matt Ross]

Ah the good old Isles. They have turned a somewhat boring offseason (aside from the first couple of days) into a soap opera.

Hire GM and coach. Get rid of GM. Hire backup goalie as GM. Have former backup goalie give current goalie FIFTEEN YEAR CONTRACT! wow.

I mean, I know every sport has dysfunctional organizations. The NBA has the Knicks right now, MLB has the somehow still functioning Marlins. But the NHL continues to set new standards for lunacy.

I have to applaud Islanders fans. If you stick with them through this, you are a true fan.

[Dave Brown]

NOT LONGEST EVER... Wayne Gretzky, 20 years, signed in 1979 with the Edmonton Oilers for 5 Million dollars. It did have an option at the 10 year mark to renegotiate.

Do your homework.

[cy]

Not sure where you're getting your homework done from Dave, but that was actually a 21-year personal services contract Gretzky signed with then-Oilers owner Peter Pocklington in 1979. In 1987, Gretzky signed a 5-year extension to his player contract:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE0D71130F934A25755C0A961948260

(I'm assuming this Wang deal is not a personal services contract. Perhaps it is and Ricky is going to service his home PC, I dunno).
So consider the homework done. At this end, anyway.

[C-Fly]

I just do not get the rationale behind this long-term deal. As you probably know, Gretzky and Magic Johnson both signed longer deals, and I think Favre is on a lifetime contract in Green Bay.
My problem is that, look at those guys and then compare them to RD. Best hockey player of all time, one of the best guards of all time and one of the greatest QB’s of all time. DiPietro is not even the best goalie to ever play for the Isles, it just seems ludicrous to guarantee the guy $67.5 million. You would figure that they would have learned their lesson with the Yashin deal, when he was centering the 4th line in the pre-lockout year.

I don’t blame this on Rick, I would be signing that dotted line for sure, but it just goes to show that maybe it is Wang that is the idiot and not Milbury all along.

[Ian Dudgeon]

Neil Smith must be breathing yet another huge sigh of relief to not be involved with this assinine decision.

Charles Wang - it must be fun to run a hockey team while completely intoxicated. I imagine he also makes his little multi-headed crew wear toy soldier outfits and make them march around his office while shouting DiPietro's name over and over again and stomping on photos of Neil Smith.

[Eric]

Hey Alex Rodriguez, there's a new "worst contract ever" in New York City. You can finally exhale.

And this just in...the Isles are proud to announce that they have signed defenseman Bruno Gervais to a 55 million-year contract worth $1 per season, guaranteed. (They're reportedly thrilled to have locked him up for the long-term.)

[jeeves]

yeah, this Wang is messed up!
but the big thing for me is not the overall value, but something that chris mentions: what if Depietro gets tired of NY and wants to leave? Can you trade him without having to assume all of the remaining contract? What if he turns into a great goaltender and demands more than 4.5 mil a year since he'd be "underpaid" at that point? Talk about a headache. Maybe this all doesn't matter... with re-negotiation the norm, maybe all this can be changed in the future.. i dunno.

[Tommy]

It can only be bad for the team. If he gets good, the player feels really depressed that he's locked up for another 10 years...

Another thing - There's a rule in the NBA CBA that says any salary after age 35 on a contract that's signed before that age is included on the cap in the previous years. The point is to keep teams from giving old players long contracts to stay under the cap while guaranteeing a higher total $ number. i.e. 34 year old player, you want to pay him $5mil per for 3 years ($15M total), but only have $1M cap space. So you give him a 15 year $15M contract. Under the NBA salary cap this would count as $7.5M for the year he's 34, and $7.5M when he's 35...

Wonder if there's anything like that in the NHL CBA...