Now I wasn’t expecting that one. New Jersey were not one of the teams a lot of the rumor mongering types were putting on their shortlist of team that would trade for Kovalchuk but last night good ‘ol Lou Lamarello came up with the goods to grab one of the games top snipers. The Devils are defensive first team and have been for years, but they once traded for Russian Alex Mogilny a number of years back and he won a cup with them so no reason this cannot work again by getting Kovalchuk.

To get Kovalchuk the Devils parted with John Oduya, Nic Bergfors, prospect Patrice Cormier (the kid suspended for the rest of the year in the QMJHL for a dirty elbow just a few weeks ago) and a 1st round draft pick.

While the Devils were already a contender, this really puts them in a good position to go all the way. Whether he stays on there past this season remains to be seen but I think this is worth the risk by NJ.

For what its worth, Kovalchuk never really meant what he said by saying he wanted to stay in Atlanta if the deal was right, he supposedly turned down a 12 year $101-million contract and if you turn that down either your incredibly greedy or you never wanted to stay at all … I think its the later because he may be greedy but he isn’t stupid and he’ll do well to better 12 years at $101-million anywhere in the summer. Kovalchuk clearly wanted to save face with the fans and didn’t want to come out and verbally say that he wanted to leave.

I think Atlanta were hoping for more but when a player this good is only potentially going to be a short term rental there is only so much a team will pay. If he’d been upfront with them earlier in the year they could have got more for him earlier in the season, perhaps even late last year when they’d have got a ton in return.

Teams need to learn that if you take your stars into the final year of their contracts without a renewal you run the serious risk of losing them for little return. I don’t know what some GM’s think but if it were me I’d be making sure to lock up my stars at least 15 months prior to their contract expiring and if I couldn’t then I’d look to deal early when I could get maximum return.

On the subject: Atlanta Thrashers, Ilya Kovalchuk, New Jersey Devils, NHL, NHL Trade | ALL SUBJECTS |

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