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Over the last few weeks, there has been a ton of speculation about where Ilya Kovalchuk will end up playing hockey this fall.
That continued on Tuesday when,
in the latest edition of his 30 Thoughts column, Elliotte Friedman penned a note about the Russian winger.
15. Also wondering if the Islanders will make a hard push for Ilya Kovalchuk. It makes sense for them, although they will have to convince him they are going for it now. Russian sources believe Kovalchuk had serious interest in the Rangers, but a) I’m not sure of their interest, and b) I’m not sure they could pull it off if they wanted to. Sounds like Florida has also inquired. But, if he was interested in the New York area, why wouldn’t the Islanders try?
I have way too many thoughts on that blurb so let's get right to them:
1) I agree with Friedman that the Islanders make a lot of sense -- regardless of how you look at it. There have been rumors that Kovalchuk would prefer to stick in the New York area so from a geography perspective they seem like a natural fit.
They also want to add scoring, which Kovalchuk can obviously bring, and show John Tavares they are committed to winning. Acquiring a dynamic player like Kovalchuk, who could end up on Tavares' line, would probably go a long way towards convincing him of that.
2) The Rangers have been mentioned as a possible destination since Day 1 but I just don't see it. First and foremost, they are loaded with forwards capable of scoring. There is no need at all for more offensive firepower up front. If anything, clearing someone out so a young player like Pavel Buchnevich can take on bigger role makes sense.
The Rangers also have less than $7 million in cap space to re-sign the likes of Mika Zibanejad, Jesper Fast, and Oscar Lindberg, among others, while finding a top-4 defenseman or convincing Brendan Smith to stick around.
They definitely don't have enough money for all that so how are they supposed to bring in Kovalchuk for $5.5-6.5 million per season?
3) The Devils and Rangers flat out don't do business together. One day they'll come together, I'm sure, but I doubt GM Ray Shero is in a hurry to trade a guy who would probably be the 3rd best player on the Devils (after Taylor Hall and Cory Schneider) to their biggest rival.
4) The Panthers are an interesting wild card. Once they re-sign Jaromir Jagr and their RFA defensemen, Alex Petrovic and Mark Pysyk, they'll probably have ~4 million in cap space to play with. I don't know that they're willing to spend to the max and $4M isn't enough for Kovalchuk even if they wanted to. I think they'd want to unload a contract if things were going to work. Reilly Smith, who is coming off the worst season of his career (production wise), and is entering the first season of a five-year, $25 million contract, seems like a guy they'd be open to moving.
If the Devils think Smith can bounce back -- I think he can -- and are willing to make that bet, perhaps there's a deal to be made. If not, I'm not sure the Panthers make sense.
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