Checking From Behind Pulling No Punches

There's plenty to talk about after today's press conference from Dana White and the UFC. There were a ton of questions and fans finally received their answers.

First of all, the Fedor issues. Dana said the UFC offered him a contract without co-promotion that the fighter will never see anywhere else but Fedor and M-1 turned it down.

The rumors of the Henderson vs. Franklin fight being pulled are confirmed true, but White. Franklin is now scheduled to fight Vitor Belfort at UFC 103, and Dan Henderson is now the #1 contender for a re-match against Anderson Silva for the Middleweight title with Demian Maia right behind Henderson for he shot. The Henderson/Franklin fight was scrapped because fans just didn't care to see it. Furthermore, the Belfort/Franklin fight will be a light heavyweight fight, and not middleweight.

It has also been confirmed that ESPN has signed an agreement with the UFC to air their programs in the UK as well as Ireland. That is good news for the UFC in terms of their Euro-audience.

Dana White confirms Tito Ortiz is back and is expected to fight later this year. His first opponent is believed to be Mark Coleman. Tito's contract will take him to the end of his career.

The UFC is still very much interested in exploring other sections of Canada for their events with Vancouver leading the way in 2010. I'd consider this a good time for a Western Canada event considering the Winter Olympics.

To no one's surprise, the UFC is not interested in bringing back either of Andrei Arlovski or Tim Sylvia.

White still speaks of a deal that will "change the UFC forever". Not sure if this was just an attention seeking comment or if such a deal exists, and if so, what exactly? If it was a unification of every fight promoting chapter in the world, then a co-promotion with M-1 Global to land Fedor would not have been a deal breaker.

Micheal A. Aldred

michealaldred@hotmail.com

Almost a month after the alleged "errors" in their qualifyings of RFA players, the Chicago Blackhawks are faced with another possible problem, only this time they won't be losing players, they'll be losing draft picks and up to a $5M fine by the NHL. It seems their contract for UFC Marian Hossa, a significantly front-loaded 12 year deal worth $62.8M, is not in compliance with the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). How is that you ask? Well, there is a new rule that states that if any player over the age of 35 signs a contract with a club and retires before the end of the contract, the contract's cap hit will still be in effect. For example: If Joe Sakic signed a 2 year deal at the age of 38 for $5M per season, and retired after one year, his second year at $5M will still count against that team's Salary Cap.

Here's where it gets tricky. Marian Hossa is not 35 years of age. He's a 30 year old player who signed a 12 year deal, which would take him to the age of 42. Here's how his contract works out:

2009-10 season to the end of the 2015-16 season, Hossa will make $7.9M per season.

2016-17 season he will make $4M.

2017-18 to the end of the 2018-19 season, he will only make $1M.

2019-20 to the end of the  2020-21 season, he will make just $750K.

Thanks to the large drop in the final 5 seasons, Hossa's cap hit is only $5.233M since the league bases the hit on the average of the contract's duration.

Where the problem exists:

The Chicago Blackhawks have allegedly made an agreement with Hossa either prior to the contract, or in the contract itself, that the 30 year old forward will retire before the contract ends. It is expected that he will retire after the 2016-17 season at the age of 38, and thus the final 4 years he will relieve the Blackhawks of $5.233M per season from the Salary Cap, or $20.932M in total. Compare that to his actual payment in the last 4 years of his contract at just $3.5M in total.

The NHL has officially begun an investigation of this contract and rules it to be "not in compliance with the CBA". The Blackhawks made the sure the contract's cap hit would be lower by signing him to a deal of which he would never play for the actual length. In all honesty, they could have just signed him until he was 45 with the same $750K yearly salary at the end and drop the cap hit down to $4.336M per season. If this type of contract is considered "approvable" by the league, don't be surprised to see teams begin to sign young up and coming stars to almost 20 year deals in order to front load the contract with a significant dip at the end in order to keep the cap hit low. Is it a genius move by the Blackhawks? Absolutely. Is it cheating? Not unless it states this type of contract is illegal as per the CBA that was written 5 years ago before these types of deals had even come up.

Micheal A. Aldred

michealaldred@hotmail.com

Alright, the first piece of info on tonight's agenda is Vancouver's signing of Kyle Wellwood. The RFA received a 200K pay raise from last season's $1M to this season's $1.2M. He was deemed "too fat for hockey" by several reports, but managed to sideline his nickname "the Hamburger Helper" with a strong playoff performance. Hopefully he can continue to mold into a 2nd line center and dominate the powerplay.

Flyers fans were excited to hear about Chris Pronger joining the fold, now they have another reasont to be excited: Ole-Kristian Tollefsen. Somehow they managed to land the UFA for just a 1 year $600K contract. The 25 year old Norwegian is a gritty, stay at home defenseman who has no problem mixing it up. He's the perfect Flyer. I consider this signing a steal of a deal, perhaps the steal of the offseason, which is good because the other steal of the offseason was the deal for Pronger, but not in Philly's favor.

The NHL was good and ready to sell the Coyotes to Jerry Reinsdorf for around $148M. They rejected Balsillie's offer unanimously, they rejected a third offer from another Canadian group and ruled it "incomplete" and unanimously accepted Reinsdorf's bid. They were prepared to go to the courts to complete the deal, which would see not a single penny in current owner Jerry Moyes' pocket. His approximte $100M loss with the franchise thus far has been determined "loss of assets" and not "debt" according to several sources.

But not so fast Bettman. Moyes lawyers have issued a challenge on behalf of the bid on the basis that it "cannot be approved as a matter of law" and that "there are no qualified bidders" based on terms set by the court. The group will present their entire case on Friday in court where the specifications of the deal are to be signed, but it seems the NHL has tried to pull a fast one on Moyes in return for trying to shove the team into Chapter 11 bankruptcy a few months ago.

Let the games continue.

Micheal A. Aldred

michealaldred@hotmail.com