The Globe and Mail's David Shoalts posited an absolutely fascinating article about the principals involved in arguing the NHL and NHLPA's cases in the Ilya Kovalchuk ruling.



According to Shoalts, chief NHL attorney Bob Batterman essentially "designed the owners' strategy" for the lockout, helped negotiate the CBA, and is on retainer for the NBA and NFL as they approach new CBA negotiations, already strongly encouraging both leagues to engage in lockouts. Take note of the law firm's name--Proskauer Rose--because its lawyers are re-shaping the sports landscape. As for the NHLPA, they bizarrely retained Ted Saskin-supporter John McCambridge as their lead counsel, and he didn't do a bang-up job in trying to convince the NHL-friendly Richard Bloch that the NHL's rule regarding circumvention of the CBA simply didn't spell out a term limit for player contracts.



Shoalts also reveals that the NHL pushed Bloch to review Red Wings forwards Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen's contracts, but, as Ken Holland told the Free Press's Helene St. James, the league hasn't contacted the Wings about said deals. Four other teams haven't been so lucky:





In other words, the suggestions of journalists like ESPN's Scott Burnside, who suggest that the NHL's just doing its best to try to scare the hell out of its GM's and warn them to not dole out similar deals, but Fanhouse's Alan Adams also notes that the fact that some teams are more equal than others in the NHL's eyes plays into the fact that the league's pretending to "investigate" said deals as well:





That's true, but the players are on record, under both Paul Kelly and in the Fehr-as-advisor era, as not wanting to engage in any sort of strike. They want to play in 2012, and while doofuses like

are praising this ruling and the ensuing sabre-rattling, saner people believe that this ruling will spurn the NHLPA to get its act together in a hurry, as The Hockey Writers' Mike Colligan (per Yahoo Sports'

) notes--because the NHL has essentially made its first stride toward eliminating guaranteed contracts:

Agreed.