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.

Seems Ilya is set to leave Atlanta. A contract agreement cannot be reached and GM Don Waddell today informed Ilya he’d be traded in the coming hours or days. Rumors have it that the following teams are in play:

Calgary: Since ruled out

Chicago: Since ruled out

LA: The favorites and would be an excellent pick up if they can re-sign him

Boston: Kovalchuk beside Savard suddenly makes Boston better again.

Philly: Carter + Coburn + Prospect + pick? Might get it done. I’d love it, but only if we could sign him though he wants 10 odd years and I wouldn’t want to give him that.

Rangers: You never can tell with the Rangers but he’d be purely rental I’d imagine.

The other belief is that Atlanta have just said this to really generate interest from other teams and maybe make one or two others a little bit desperate in what they are willing to throw at the Thrashers for their star winger.

Brian Startare is reporting that the Philadelphia Flyers are talking with the Atlanta Thrashers about acquiring superstar forward Ilya Kovalchuk. The asking price is expected to start with Jeff Carter and Claude Giroux.

Kovalchuk will be an unrestricted free agent following this season, and wants a contract extension; however Atlanta are not willing to pay Kovy the money he deserves. He reportedly wants a 10-year contract worth $11.3 million—the maximum amount allowed by the NHL.

In 28 games this season with the Thrashers, Kovalchuk has tallied 19 goals and 17 assists for 36 points. He averages over a point a game this year, which is something Philadelphia could desperately use.

— Tim Dougherty, vyous.com, 22 Dec ‘09

Interesting stuff indeed and what to think about it? Kovalchuk is a brilliant player, a true sniper and guarantees you goals. The only problem I have with this is that the Flyers would be giving up too much in two talented players – one of which is a 40+ goal scorer himself (Carter) from last year – considering Kovalchuck’s contract is due to expire in June 2010. If of course the Flyers can negotiate a new contract with Kovalchuck then I would certainly say the deal would be worth making, but not if you were only going to get him for a handful of months – are we that desperate to give up that much in order to gamble that he pulls us back into the playoffs this year?

Another catch is the terms Kovalchuk is looking from Atlanta. Ten years worth $11.3 million is probably not something the Flyers can afford to give up. They are near the cap limit as it is and moving Carter and Giroux probably won’t cut it. They already have Richards locked up for over ten years and putting a second player on such a contract would be a no-go in my view. Here is hoping the Flyers would be able to offer him a solid shot at glory in the hopes he would lower his numbers down a little and the term of the contract.

I say ’shot at glory’ loosely of course. The Flyers this year were expected to challenge for the cup and be a top three team in the conference. Things started well but in the last few months they have absolutely fallen apart. They sacked their coach John Stevens but results still have not improved and with such a talented bunch the media and fans are really starting to speculate as to why things are going wrong. Making a player move is the next natural progression following a coach firing if results do not pick up and this certainly would be a blockbuster move. Let’s see what happens…