NHL conundrum

The NHL once again proves it is a garage league...as I always say, I love this sport not this league....though I agree with the thought that the Kovalchuk deal was a defininte attempt by the Devils to circumvent today's salary cap, and it is good for the Penguins to see this deal nullified, I am dumbfounded by the fact that other players including but not necessarily limited to Marian Hossa, Roberto Luongo, Rick DiPietro and to some extent Chris Pronger signed deals with a similar intent/lifespan without any such move by the NHL..............I am curious to see what happens next, as the current cba does not specifically ban this kind of contract, though it is hard to argue that these contracts chafe against the "spirit of the agreement." Will the NHLPA strike back on this contract? Will the NHL explore similar outcomes with regard to some of the other players with contracts that similarly front load a large and long term deal with most of the money in the early years, while continuing to pay the player a much lesser amount at the tail end, when they may not even be playing so that the average and therefore cap hit is palatable? For the short term, as a Pens fan, I am glad to see this, as the 6M cap hit that came from spreading Kovalchuk's 102M contract over 17 years and paying him until he is 44, made if possible for them to retain other stars like Zach Parise...........To give Kovy a similar number over 10 years will destroy the cap status of the Devils, making the deal unlikely. There are two other issues to consider from my point of view as well......First, again, my parochial view as a Pens fan would like to see this kind of contract allowed as the Pens may be faced with a similar scenario when Crosby and Malkins contracts come up. I would think the next cba would more specifically preclude this issue, so the Pens will not have that luxury either way........a more global concern for the NHL would arise should Kovalchuk jump to the KHL for the bigger dollars he can make over there. The KHL has been slowly poaching some decent names from the NHL of late, most of the them being either over the hill former stars OR more marginal NHL talent. Some recent signings include Dennis Grebeshkov, Maxim Afinogenov, and Evgeni Nabakov......Landing Kovalchuk, an NHL "star" in his prime would be a big coup for the KHL, and potentially lure other NHL players to that league if cap restrictions make it attractive for this to happen. Although I do not want to see this happen, I dont think the NHL can allow this loophole in the next cba if they believe as I do that the salary cap brought enough parity to the NHL to really benefit most of the league.....this loophole drastically diminishes the affect of the cap, as these deals take what should have been a 10-11M per year cap hit, and drops it to six or so.Limiting the contract length to a maximum of 6-8 years could eliminate this as an issue, but I am sure the NHLPA will have issues with that. An interesting set of circumstances for all parties.