Over the course of his entire career with the Atlanta Thrashers, Ilya Kovalchuk
has mostly been better than a point a game forward. He is a true superstar who has racked up 47 points in 38 games this year and is currently making $7.5 million a year. He is going to be an unrestricted free agent come July 1st and now wants to make some serious cash (if you count $7.5 million as peanuts) in a long term contract. The Thrashers have not come to him with any offer that has interested him and after watching his friend and fellow countryman Ovechkin lock in at $124 million for 13 years, Kovalchuk is reportedly expecting something in the area of $100 million for 10 years.
has mostly been better than a point a game forward. He is a true superstar who has racked up 47 points in 38 games this year and is currently making $7.5 million a year. He is going to be an unrestricted free agent come July 1st and now wants to make some serious cash (if you count $7.5 million as peanuts) in a long term contract. The Thrashers have not come to him with any offer that has interested him and after watching his friend and fellow countryman Ovechkin lock in at $124 million for 13 years, Kovalchuk is reportedly expecting something in the area of $100 million for 10 years.The Thrashers clearly want to sign the All Star, but it’s Kovalchuk who is saying all the right things claiming that he wants to remain in Atlanta. All players say they want to stay where they are so as not to upset the fans or anger management. But let’s be honest, Kovalchuk should leave the Thrashers organization. He owes them nothing. Drafted first overall, he has delivered on all expectations and has received nothing in return. The team has only made the playoffs once (in 2006-2007) in their entire history and they ended up losing to the Rangers in four straight games. That compounded with the fact there is little agreement between the team’s eight owners makes Atlanta a mess of an organization. So Ilya should grab the money elsewhere and get on with his career and stop making excuses to his current organization.
The teams lining up for his services are supposedly the Blackhawks, Bruins, Red Wings, Canucks, and Kings. Expect the Blackhawks to make a deal but not render the following players: the Hawks would never give up Kane, Toews, Keith, or Hossa (although that would be the definition of irony) and Detroit can’t part with Zetterberg or Datsyuk. If Chicago can pull off a deal, they'll be one up on the competition improving their chances to come out of the Western Conference. Atlanta would have to be crazy to settle for someone like Abdelkader from Detroit in exchange for Kovalchuk. The Bruins could definitely use Kovalchuk now that Savard is out for a few weeks and they have nine picks in the first two rounds of the next two drafts that they could give up. But it was Dean Lombardi, GM for the Kings who made the trip to Atlanta to watch Kovalchuk and see if there was any interest in joining the Kings. Of all the possibilities, Los Angeles seems like the right move for Ilya. The team has bounced back in a big way this year with Smyth and Scuderi (although they are currently only occupying the last playoff spot) and the L.A. market is huge compared to Atlanta.
