Ilya Kovalchuck will be returning to the New Jersey Devils this season.

The final contract submitted by the Devils to the NHL was approved by the league around 3 am Saturday morning.

Kovalchuk originally signed a 17-year, $102 million deal, but the NHL rejected the contract due to their feelings that it circumvented the CBA.

The re-worked deal will see Kovalchuk receive $100 million over 15 years – plus a multitude of bonuses – with a cap hit of $6.7 annually.  Kovalchuk’s contract is thought to pay him $90 million over the first 10 years and $10 million for the last five years.

The deal was made possible when the NHL and the NHLPA agreed on an amendment to the rules of long-term contacts going forward from Saturday morning.

Darren Dreger from TSN explains the changes..

“The amendments address two specific rules which only apply to long-term contracts (contracts defined as five years or longer).

First: For long-term contracts extending beyond the age of 40, the contract’s average annual value for the years up to and including 40, are calculated by dividing total value in those years by the number of years up to and including 40. Then for the years covering ages 41 and beyond, the cap charge in each year is equal to the value of the contract in that year.

For example, when a 35-year old player agrees to a seven-year deal that expires when he’s 42, the NHL would now take the first five years of the contract to age 40 and average them out. The total becomes the dollars divided by five years. That player’s average annual salary would then become the cap hit.

His cap hit in the final two years of his deal would be the actual value of the contract in those seasons, therefore a cap hit of $525,000 for years six and seven of the deal.

Secondly, for long-term contracts that include years in which the player is 36, 37, 38, 39 and 40; the amount used for purposes of calculating his average annual value is a minimum of $1 million in each of those years (even if his actual compensation is less during those seasons).

As an example, a player signs the exact same seven-year deal discussed above, however the deal is signed at the age of 32 and is set to expire when the player reaches 39 years old.  For that contract, the two seasons at $525,000 would remain, however they would be treated as years at $1 million for the purpose of calculating the appropriate cap charge.”

In the end, the main point that everyone should take out of this agreement, is that the NHL and NHLPA agreed on something to rectify the situation and prevent the problem from escalating further.

Even though the decision came a little later than anticipated, agreeing on the amendments can be taken as good news, seeing as the CBA is up for renewal soon.

Now, many people believe that Donald Fehr had a hand in what was happening, even though on the record he hasn’t stated that he is involved.

But whoever was the catalyst behind Saturday’s 3am deal, it shows that there is hope for the future.

And that’s good news for not only the NHL, but it’s most important entity, the fans.