We've always said that the NHL is a better place with Brendan Shanahan(notes) in it, so his re-upping with the New Jersey Devils is a good thing -- especially when he's approaching next season with an inspiring, blue-collar, take nothing for granted attitude.

Shanahan will be 41 years old in 2010, and the terms of his contract with Jersey (H/T Mirtle) are noteworthy when taken within recent context: one year at $1 million.

As in the same amount of money Johan Franzen(notes) and Henrik Zetterberg(notes) of the Detroit Red Wings are due to make when they're 40. As in the same amount of money Marian Hossa(notes) of the Chicago Blackhawks is due to make when he's 40.

Now, there should be a huge difference between salaries in 2010 and 2020; assuming $1 million dollars will mean the same then as it does now is as foolhardy as Dr. Evil throwing the figure around while extorting world leaders.

Yet the contention from some NHL executives defending these long-term contracts currently being scrutinized by the NHL (Chris Pronger's(notes) included) is that the salary at the end of the deal is in line with comparable players at that age. Shanahan's deal does, in some way, validate that thought; although a one-year deal and the end of a long-term contract are also light years apart.

Of course, the final-year salary is only one facet of the long-term contract debate that's raged this summer. The bottom line is that the GMs were told quite specifically by the League, during their meetings in Naples (Fla.) earlier this year, that using long-term deals to circumvent the CBA would be investigated.

NHL VP Bill Daly told XM Home Ice this morning that there's been no evidence of wrongdoing (yet) in the cases under investigation now by outside counsel, but that the NHL had to look into them; which is another way of saying the NHL is simply following through on a threat that Chicago and Philadelphia should have known was imminent.

Related: Gary Bettman, Commissioner for Life, Rumors, scuttlebutt, innuendo