After weeks of speculation and uncertainty Ilya Kovalchuk has a long-term contract with the New Jersey Devils. 

The NHL and NHLPA today have reportedly reached agreement not only on Kovalchuk's new contract with the Devils, but have also agreed to amend the CBA rules governing the length of players contracts. 

It was the Devils initial agreement with Kovalchuk in late-July on a 17-year, $102 million contract which resulted in the league rejecting the deal on the grounds of salary cap circumvention.

The league's rejection was eventually upheld by an arbitrator in early August, which also cast into doubt the contracts of Philadelphia's Chris Pronger, Vancouver's Roberto Luongo, Chicago's Marian Hossa and Boston's Marc Savard.

Those deals were signed last year but had been "under investigation" by the league and were questioned by the arbiter in the footnotes of his ruling on the Kovalchuk contract.

The rejections sent the Devils and Kovalchuk's agent back to the bargaining table to work out an agreement which the league would accept, whilst also creating confusion and concern not just for Devils fans but also followers of the Flyers, Canucks, Blackhawks and Bruins as to the status of those other players noted in the decision.

Eventually the Devils submitted a 15-year, $100 million contract to the league in late-August which addressed the three main issues raised by the arbiter in his decision; the amount of money paid in the final years to Kovalchuk, the length of the deal and changing his "no-movement" clause to a "no-trade" clause, which would've made it possible for the Devils to demote him to clear cap space if need be. 

The new offer shortened the contract by two years, paid more money on the back end of the deal thus elevating the average cap hit and apparently removed the changing of the "no-movement" clause to a "no-trade". 

A decision was supposed to have been reached on September 1st but talks eventually widened into negotiations with the league and the PA regarding a loophole allowing teams to sign players to lengthy, front-loaded deals stretching beyond the age of 40, resulting in a lower cap hit for the team.

That resulted in the league and PA agreeing to move the deadline forward to September 3rd to allow more time to reach an agreement on those issues.

Pronger's contract had been reportedly approved by the league earlier this week, and it is expected Luongo's, Hossa's and Savard's deals will also be allowed to stand.

As for future contracts there will be new measures for calculation of long-term contracts (those over five years) for terms which carry a player into his late-30s and early 40s

As per TSN.ca:

"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."

"(F)or 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)."

Ultimately, Kovalchuk's contract and those of Pronger, Luongo, Savard and Hossa, will be the last of their kind. 

It also means Kovalchuk's cap hit on his new contract - an average of $6.66 million per season - will push the Devils over the $59.4 million salary cap for the upcoming season, meaning management will have to dump salary via trade, waivers or demotion to the minors to become cap compliant prior to the start of this coming season.