Kovalchuk to the Islanders?

Replacing Bergy with Kovi would be OUTSTANDING!

Tnaks for whe writeup, but as far as this line goes:

bq In the end though it’s going to be about whether Kovy wants to win now or make money.

Im sorry but that just doesnt sit right with me. Exclude everything having to do with the Isles in particular and think about this: A player cannot want both? Id say that ALL well-adjusted players likely want both. Would you put this same “either/or” label on everyone who signed with Pittsburgh right before their abrupt exit from the NHL bottomfeeder club? It just doesnt seem right to me.

$9.2M tied up in a whirlpool and Moscow fur dealers(take that however you want) this year without one skate blade hitting the ice.
$6.7M tied up for the same reasons for the following 4 years.
$4.5M tied up for 6 years after that…
Can you put a one in front of all of those numbers without even knowing where you’ll be playing in 2016?
… it just doesn’t add up.

I’ve been mentioning Jewels From The Crown a Lot, mostly because he’s done some great running around with the Blackhawks numbers and Kovy’s possible landing points. I wanted to point out this post in which he checks out the Comments to Botta’s post about Kovy.

I give in on waiting for more news.

…..depending upon how one feels about either, Ilya Kovalchuk has had the sort of career that Ziggy Palffy would’ve in a perfect world – personally, I think Zigs was slightly better defensively, and he came thisclose to reaching the 50-goal mark with 48 in 1996-97 …..as I recall, Milbury gave him a contract for 5 million a year before Milstein forced him to sell off in one of the most truly GALLING days ever on LI, I think we can all readily agree…..

…..Palffy reached the 40-goal mark three times while playing for the Islanders, and came close to 40 twice more with the Kings (38 and 37). If Ilya has netted 40+ goals 5 out of his (with two 50+-goal seasons and another near-40, with 38) what, the equivalent of between 7-8 campaigns, then paying him twice as much as Ziggy makes a lot of sense, I suppose (again, I’d feel MUCH better about running with the big-dog salaries if it were FIVE, rather than TEN, seasons but I suspect Kovi would insist upon a decade-long commitment. Or maybe NOT; I certainly can’t say for sure…..)

…..the supporting cast in ATL prob kept his assist totals down, so maybe he breaks 100 points as an Islander, what with all the playmakers surrounding him!

we would go from being aroun dth ebottom of the league to being right up in the top 10, maybe top 5. I could see a PP with Streit and Kovy, JT, Moulson and Schremp. then our #2 unit being Weight, Bailey, Frans, Hillen and Hunter

No one, NO ONE gets a 10 year contract. This is exciting now, but does it help us win the cup in the next decade. It puts us in trouble when our emerging, home grown stars want big raises.

It’s the exact move we need to get us to the playoffs and make us legit.

How bout 11 for 8yrs though?

If they really think this would do anything for the Lighthouse Project, I’d whine. If they have to pay a one-dimensional scorer $10 million for the next decade, I’d pout.

Really prefer Wang not stepping into the GM office like this.

……as much as might appear otherwise (although we HAVE gotten conflicting signals from Garth) could this merely be a cost-free way of rehabbing the Islanders’ image in terms of willingness to spend? That he has no expectation of Kovi accepting? Which seems odd, given the frequently-cited mega contracts of Yashin & DiPietro…..

…..food for Kate Murray’s thought (among others)?

If we know about it- it is as good as done.

it must be the Mets fans in you all (jk)

The future of this franchise rest obviously on the future arena, and our performance. This deal immediately helps the prospect of both. With Kovy, I think we jump to the next level, easily make the playoffs, and become #2 in terms of talent (behind ElSid) in the division. Its not our money, its Wangs. Its not really going to ever hurt us cap wise, at least not for another 5 years, and by then who knows what will be.

I agree I do not like 10 years for anyone (although compared to DiPs its short), but its the type of risk we have to take. Yes we got burned once in a situation like this before, but we need to keep trying, after all Milbury’s no where near this one so the curse should be over.

Thanks for pointing out the “curse of Milbury” is over. Breath. I feel better now.

…..before issuing that edict – or, better yet, a kahuna!

In 5 years Malkin and Crosby will both be UFAs. They would be 28/27 (the same age as Kovy) and are currently making 9 Million each. Unless there’s another holdout, the cap should continue to climb, and they are both going to want raises. Let’s just consider they don’t do a home discount, they continue their yearly production and don’t have any major injuries. Would it be crazy to see them possibly getting 12-15 mil a year by then?

all this news with Russian players to you think one Billionaire in Brooklyn is taking note?

with all these Russian spies maybe he is being planted on the NYI to infiltrate Wang

If Wang wants to sell tickets! Stop signing crap like the 4 bums Garth gave us yesterday!

… I’ve decided I need to get a life!
I also think Webby has the best solution. 2yrs @ the Max. (~$11.8m)
There’s no doubt that Ilya Kovalchuk is a much more accomplished talent than Alexei Yashin or Rick DiPietro, but a 10 year deal just doesn’t add up for this team.
First off the economics is bad. By offering $10M/per you’ve added 2-3M to the highest bid without getting anything extra in return. Ilya doesn’t make the Islanders $3M better than he would the Kings or Devils… You are also extending the contract out unnecessarily.
This is EXACTLY what Wang did in the Yahin Fiasco. There were no other bidders and he gave away the future.
With a shorter deal, If Ilya proves to move the Isles forward it’s a win-win situation. He has already earned $4M+ more than he would have with either of the other teams. The Islanders know better where they need to committ their resources. If things are falling into place they can make a more creative 5 year deal at that point and everybody is happy.
If he’s a bust he’s still made $24M + personal marketing money… maybe even a guest shot with Nino, JT and KO on Entourage.
PLEASE TAKE 10YRS OFF THE TABLE…Somebody tell Wang that the SEC is looking for him… that will get him to Hawaii until Snow makes a smarter deal.
If Ilya doesn’t want THE MAX for 2-3 years… then to hell with him…
PS: Looking at the boards of the Isles competition for Ilya… HA… CRICKETS. Nobody else gives a rats arse. He should do 2 years in Uniondale just for the LOVE!

1. Kovy brings instant scoring to a team that deperately needs it. This allows us to leave our recent draftees in Bridgeport to develop as they should wtihout the growing pains to the NHL product.
2. You can’t discount that the guy (as much as he wants money) has never been really classified as someone who dogs it or is not a team guy (see Yashin, Alexei). As a matter of fact, I have seen him hit and even fight. This is good for our young Russian players who do have that label (Kirill squared).
3. Because we have that ready made scoring, we would be able to judge need, porspect projection and tradeability much easier than the “wait and pray” method that we currently have.
4. Merchandising, tickets and the arena WILL be boosted immediately as will mainstream television, and who knows maybe the winter classic opportunity to showcase us. This may allow Wang to spend more, lure more, get the arena finalized and or, at least sell us to someone who may not leverage the team vs. real estate.
5. The only downside is that length. I would go max (11.8) with NTC for three years with player option after that. That way, he still has UFA time at 30 when he isn’t washed up and could go elsewhere if he still needs to “win now” and the isles aren’t delivering. Three years should be about the time this years entry level contracts are up on our 3 first rounders right???
6. Next years draft is pretty barren right? And either way, I don’t expect that we will have high picks in those two following years which would also allow us to package picks and become more active in the trade market…especially if we are respectable and the money is flowing and the arena thing is stabilized.

If this falls right, everyone could be peaking at the right time with recent prospect ready to step in and contribute very well immediately. I like it, just whittle down the years man!
I have Alexiphobia. (the fear of high priced commitments to Russians)

Just a few more points of information (hopefully factual), none of which means I want (or do not want) the deal…

Assuming $10 million per year, the Isles get a new arena, and that they would then be willing to spend closer to the cap.

The $10 million would get us just a bit past the floor, and the floor is $16 million under the ceiling (that’s some tall room!). That would mean that, in the future, there’d be at least $16 million to play with to start locking in our other guys. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but remember these three things:

1. The cap has risen every year, even in this dreadful economy. Part of that is due to some NHL trickery, I’m sure, from teams buying up some of their own seats for whatever reason. But part of it is actual growth, so the cap and floor will both continue to rise.

2. Yashin’s deal comes off the books in, what, three years? Correction, Quin just stated it’s a bit longer, but also mentions a few others will fall off as well.

3. Unfortunately, despite Garth’s amazing drafting powers, the sad fact of life is that not everyone we think will be superstars, will actually become superstars. It’s just the law of averages. So we might not have, in the future, as many big contracts as people are assuming today.

Again, I’m not saying I’m necessarily for the deal, but I still see cap space if they pull the trigger.

just wondering.

but i’d do it

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-kings-20100703,0,7492659.story

WOW!!!!!

If we sign him we wont need to rush Nino like we did Bailey, and maybe not even the Hamonic and Dehaan because we will be scoring so much more. Every team needs a 40 goal scorer and unless JT pulls a Stamkos we don’t have one. For all we know MM was a one hit wonder.

I highly doubt this happens

are you guys Lizards fans?