Clarke MacArthur was awarded $2.4 million in arbitration today and the Thrashers have indeed decided to walk away from it. MacArthur is now an unrestricted free agent.

David Perron has signed a two-year contract for $4.3 million.

Joffrey Lupul reported on his Twitter account that he will undergo an MRI on his back today. He only recently began skating again and apparently the back is still bothering him. I’m moving him from “sleeper” to “high risk” now, but will follow closely.

Some of you long-time readers may remember Thieving Giraffe from the forum. Well, he’s been tied up in law school for several years now, but still checks in from time to time. He had this to say about the Kovalchuk issue, from a legal standpoint:

“As dual legal/hockey junky, I got all hopped up evaluating the legality and basis for this veto. Thought I’d share my thoughts, if you’re interested. The veto is reportedly based upon Section 26.3 of the CBA, which reads as follows:

CBA § 26.3: (a) No Club or Club Actor, directly or indirectly, may: (i) enter into any agreements, promises, undertakings, representations, commitments, inducements, assurances of intent, or understandings of any kind, whether express, implied, oral or written, including without limitation, any SPC, Qualifying Offer, Offer Sheet or other transaction, or (ii) take or fail to take any action whatsoever, if either (i) or (ii) is intended to or has the effect of defeating or Circumventing the provisions of this Agreement or the intention of the parties as reflected by the provisions of this Agreement, including without limitation, provisions with respect to the financial and other reporting obligations of the Clubs and the League, Team Payroll Range, Player Compensation Cost Redistribution System, the Entry Level System and/or Free Agency.

Obviously that’s a lot of excess provisions for the current situation. Reduced to what’s relevant, Section 26.3 reads:

CBA § 26.3: No Club or Club Actor, directly or indirectly, may: (i) enter into any agreements… if… (i)… is intended to or has the effect of defeating or Circumventing the provisions of this Agreement… including without limitation, provisions with respect to… Team Payroll Range… and/or Free Agency.

If GB is smart, he will omit any mention of intent, because frankly he does not have to show a lack of good faith in order to veto the agreement (and obviously there’s no need to go out of his way to insult Lou). Therefore, an arbitrator would not have to find that the deal was intended to circumvent the salary cap or that good faith had been breached, but rather simply that those final years at roughly a half-million per would have such an effect. Doesn’t seem like a very hard sell to me.” – Mike Yedinak (Thieving Giraffe)

The Ducks have signed Danny Syvret to a two-way deal. He becomes the new Brian Salcido there – dominant offensive AHL player and part-time NHL player. Salcido will play in the Czech League this year.

Erik Johnson on Twitter: “Haven’t we seen some contracts similar to Kovalchuks that were accepted by the league? Why now?”

I’ll answer that – the NHL didn’t want to approve the Hossa or Luongo deals, but figured if they could just make it to the next CBA without things getting even worse, then they’d be okay. No need to open up a can of worms by rejecting the contracts. But of course, if you give a GM an inch, they’ll take a mile. They’ll push it a little further each time. So the NHL had to do something this time, because Lou proved that the GM’s will just keep pushing and pushing otherwise. The next deal could be for 20 years. Then 30? Nope. The NHL tried to give the players and the GM’s rope to run things by themselves and as is human nature, greed pushed things too far.

Chris Vivlamore reports that Clarke MacArthur’s arbitration is today and that the Thrashers will probably walk away from the award if it’s anything like $2 million. So MacArthur will be an unrestricted free agent in the event that happens. Stay tuned…

You have to consider that the KHL creeps back into Kovalchuk’s future. Did he burn his bridges in LA? I think so. Either the NHLPA appeals this (they will) and they win their case (they probably will), or NJ reconfigures the contract and he agrees. Or Door#3 – the KHL sneaks back in there…

I’ll be doing New Jersey last in my fantasy guide. Thank goodness I didn’t get to them yet. I would have to re-write the entire thing because of this. Guide is out in 11 days, and if you like Paypal, you must buy before then. If you don’t like Paypal, wait until my new shopping cart is up (end of the month) – the new cart adds more security, more simplicity and fewer clicks.

The Flames have signed Stefan Meyer to a two-year contract.

The Hurricanes have signed Brett Carson to a one-year, two-way deal.

The Habs have signed prospect goaltender Cedric Desjardins to a contract. The 24-year-old deserves a promotion, but as it stands he is the No.3 goalie in the system.

Starting the Wednesday’s ramblings early because of the Ilya Kovalchuk news that has emerged on TSN. The NHL has apparently rejected the Kovalchuk contract due to cap circumvention. They apparently found it difficult to believe that Kovy would 1) still be playing in the NHL when he is in his 40s and 2) still play when his salary would be the NHL minimum during those years. There is a clause in the CBA that allows the NHL to reject a contract if the spirit of the CBA is violated. More to come. Meanwhile, discuss…

Guess, from my “child” analogy from yesterday, the NHL (parents) have given Lou a spanking. When they say “don’t touch that” they really mean don’t touch it (read the analogy to understand what I’m saying here)