Vancouver’s GM confirmed that they’re complying with NHL info. requests. Dark times for the NHL.

In fact, i wonder if behind the scenes that’s already happening: Chiarelli and Savard’s agent might be making a plan B deal so that the Bruins aren’t left stunned and unprepared if the contract is rescinded.

But I’m with you: I really, really, really hope the NHL doesn’t go on some needless power trip and disrupt several clubs’ carefully planned salary situation and rosters.

You may want to read all those articles that are being written on Puckdaddy, TSN, et al. that have headlines that read “NHL Investigating Other Suspicious Deals.”

The Bruins (and Flyers both) signed these guys with the intentions of buying them out, conveniently signing Savard and Pronger before they turned 35 (along with Thomas, who signed a four-year front-loaded extension mere days before his 35th birthday).

However, while I think these investigations are a good way to try and scare teams out of signing these deals, I doubt that the NHL will be able to void them based on the lawsuit that could come from the Marc Savard camp.

Let’s face it–the guy is banking in for the rest of his career with this deal. You can’t take 28 million away from him and say “Go find a new team and new contract with a month to go before training camp” given his injury concerns. I just don’t think they have the fortitude to actually do it.

I don’t doubt for a minute that some members of the B’s front office hope the contract gets scuttled: freeing up $4-MM in cap space is a big deal. I also think it’s laughable how obviously Lou Lamoriello in NJ also wanted Kovalchuk’s deal overturned and then practically rejoiced when the rejection was upheld.

His statement yesterday on the ruling referred to “… Arbitrator Bloch’s award…” as if he was handed some trophy to be able to renegotiate a saner deal.

The thing I believe that gets under the skin of the league is how the end years of these “Circumvention” contracts always drop down into the nearly minimum wage region of $525K to $550K to guarantee a cheap buyout and significant lowering of the cap hit.

Savard and Pronger have incredibly similar deals that both nose-dive to $525K for the last 2 years. Take those away and their respective cap hits would jump up by about $1.5-MM.