Comments on: Islanders in the hunt for Kovalchuk, amp up the crazy with colossal offer

By: intrigued

intrigued — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 03:41:34 +0000

Hopefully the contract is front loaded so that when the young talent the Islanders have matures they’ll have the space to keep them around.

By: josh alley

josh alley — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 01:35:05 +0000

Forget about it isle fans, he’s not going there. Doesn’t matter how much money they give him. I’ve said it from the beginning, it’s Kings or KHL for Kovalchuk. The Kings are obviously a team that is far more on the rise than the islanders. Yet, I’m starting to think he won’t go there either because of the money issue and the re-signing of some players dean lombardi has to do(Jack Johnson and Drew Doughty). It’s all about the benjamins with Kovalchuk, and I won’t be surprised if he’s raking in 10-15 million next year with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL.

By: John Pileggi

John Pileggi — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 13:16:44 +0000

Charles Wang must have a lot of money to waste or be completely nuts.

By: Randy

Randy — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 12:25:51 +0000

The New York Isles certainly have not been winners in eons. They have an antiquated arena and desperately need to fine a new home. That said the Isles are absolutely on the cusp of something special. There is a burst of talented young players there and more on the way. Kovalchuk can find an incredible amount of satisfaction over the course of his contract there. The Isles were in the playoff hunt for the vast majority of the season last year. With the maturation of the present talent and the addition of Kovalchuk it could be one sweet marriage for the next decade. They can win NOW!!!

By: Isles Fan

Isles Fan — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 10:53:19 +0000

Us Islanders fans need something like this. We need something big, and this is what we have to do in order to get someone big. Lord knows they won’t come here with any normal offer.
And It’s not like there’s nothing on this team; there’s a lot of young guys, led by Tavares, who have showed some promise.
I don’t think this is actually going to happen. But it’s nice to have some hope now and then.

By: StakeX

StakeX — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 02:11:43 +0000

Kovalchuk is going to go to Russia and play next year IMO. Money seems to be his main focus, and he simply cannot get the money here that he can in the KHL… not even close. So it only seems logical thats where hes going to land. I can’t say I blame him really if he does do that. Hes Russian himself, so he would be playing at home and collecting a far bigger paycheck with great tax breaks. Sure theres the desire to win the cup and all… but not every NHL player really cares all that much about winning at the end of the day. You get paid if you win the cup or miss the playoffs just the same for the most part, and at the end of the day its just a job… who in their right mind wouldn’t want to make as much money as possible in any other job? So why do we believe pro athleats are any different?
And anyone who think Kovalchuk isn’t just out for the cash should really look at how much he wants. Hes not going to get $10 mil from any team thats going to win the cup in the next five years… its just not going to happen because none of thoes teams have enough cap space. If he was willing to take 7.5 million a year (close to his value IMO due to his lack of accomplishment) he might well be able to fit under the cap on a potential cup contender. But nope… he wants the big bucks. And that extra 2.5 mil or so is a huge amount in a hard cap world… taking slightly less money would allow for whatever team he joins to spend money on other players and thus make the team as a whole better. Yet, all signs say he has no desire to take such a paycut.
So it would seem (at least to me) that winning isn’t really on his mind… all he sees is dollar signs. Again, I’m not really saying theres anything wrong with that… just that winning is not his priority as some want to believe it is.

By: frankie

frankie — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:57:03 +0000

Oh man.
The Islanders: Where players go to die off and then get bought out.
If he goes there, he can kiss any chance at a cup (and the playoffs most years) goodbye.
That’s a lot of cash though. This will show what kind of player he is. Interested in the cup or the money? He’ll let us know soon.

By: Scott

Scott — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:49:02 +0000

Bob,
LA is going to deal for Simon Gagne
Look it up
The Devils have 4 million dollars in cap room so how exactly is he going to go there?
Isles were linked to him at the deadline and now we no that wasn’t complete crap!! IMO this gets done before long
KOVY coming to the Island!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:44:24 +0000

I think you hit the nail on the head on this one. Kovalchuck Wants two things, Get paid, and WIN…..The Islanders can only give him one not the other and the more important factor to kovalchuk. He will Sign with either LA or NJ because he seems more concerned with winning then just cashing in.