With the LA Kings bowing out saying basically that they can’t deal with his outlandish demands, it seems it could be down to the Isles and Devils as to who will get the Russian goal scoring machine.

Ilya Kovalchukis said to have narrowed it down to 2 teams, and reports are the Devils are definitely one of them and if you listen to Garth Snow the Isles are the other. However this can take a few turns. First, as a huge Isles fan I know they don’t get guys like this and if they do he won’t even remotely come close to what he should be (Yashin anyone?). But, this could be different. Kovalchuk doesn’t seem to have years of less then 40 goals in him, so I am thinking 40-50 goals is a lock. But at what cost? Sure they have 30 mil+ right now in cap room, but in a few years the young studs on the isles (Okposo, Taveras, Bailey etc) will be due raises from entry level stuff and they could very well be up shit’s creek if they give him 10 mil per year. Yes, that’s right. Likely in order for him to sign anywhere it’s going to take 7.5 – 10 mil. So sure I want him but at what cost?

    The other reason I think it’s the Isles player to lose is b/c the devils would need to make a deal in order to free up the cap space. Unless the Devils get REAL creative with this deal 3.5 mil in cap space right now just ain’t getting the job done.

It still remains to be seen where this goes, b/c as we know ANYTHING can happen. It could very well be likely that a silent team comes out of nowhere to swoop in and sign him… Either way it seems likely he will sign in the next day or two. GO ISLES!

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