Kovalchuk trade watch

rooneypoo wrote:I don't think anyone in this league should be demanding more money per year than Ovechkin, Crosby, and Malkin. Full stop.

Kovalchuk is a wonderful talent, but I wouldn't trade for him if he were seeking that much. You can't built a winner like that.

What if your winner is already partly built?

TheAvatar wrote:
Mackenzie says in his blog that they offered in the 100M$ 10/12 year range and that was turned down by Kovalchuk and his agent (5% commission I'd assume). I think league max is 11.2$ and that's what he wants. Over 10 years, that's 11.2M$ more but what can you do with 120M$ that you can't do with 100M$? It's silly.

Then maybe (as others said) it's not about the money, he just wants out of Atlanta. Instead of demanding a trade he's just going to refuse all offers from then until they're forced to trade him.

SpezDispenser wrote:

rooneypoo wrote:I don't think anyone in this league should be demanding more money per year than Ovechkin, Crosby, and Malkin. Full stop.

Kovalchuk is a wonderful talent, but I wouldn't trade for him if he were seeking that much. You can't built a winner like that.

This. End of the story for me. No one is above the three you mentioned.

I almost feel bad for Don Wadell. Churning out star players only to see them walk away for money/championships. What can the guy do? He can't catch a break with some of these selfish punks.

Hoags wrote:

TheAvatar wrote:
Mackenzie says in his blog that they offered in the 100M$ 10/12 year range and that was turned down by Kovalchuk and his agent (5% commission I'd assume). I think league max is 11.2$ and that's what he wants. Over 10 years, that's 11.2M$ more but what can you do with 120M$ that you can't do with 100M$? It's silly.

Then maybe (as others said) it's not about the money, he just wants out of Atlanta. Instead of demanding a trade he's just going to refuse all offers from then until they're forced to trade him.

Sucks for him. Teams are going to be addressing needs in the offseason. Maybe someone will need an $11-million forward...maybe not.

Teams would be stupid to sign someone for that much. Personally, I think that anything over $7.5 is too much. Players, agents, teams - they are all stupid. Players that demand this much or think they are worth it are not putting the team first, and teams that give in are handcuffing themselves. If Crosby and Malkin, for example, took $1.2M less each (works out to $7.5M ea., still a lot of money) that is $2.4M more the team has to spend elsewhere, like on a good winger, or a defenceman. Not to mention the problems they potentially run into in the long run when they have to move one of those contracts.

I think you're preaching to the converted :O)

I do good?

Dash wrote:Teams would be stupid to sign someone for that much. Personally, I think that anything over $7.5 is too much. Players, agents, teams - they are all stupid. Players that demand this much or think they are worth it are not putting the team first, and teams that give in are handcuffing themselves. If Crosby and Malkin, for example, took $1.2M less each (works out to $7.5M ea., still a lot of money) that is $2.4M more the team has to spend elsewhere, like on a good winger, or a defenceman. Not to mention the problems they potentially run into in the long run when they have to move one of those contracts.

Yep. Agreed.

Can anyone then answer why? Are we then in agreement that the Crosby, Malkin and Ovechkin deals are sickening and not good for the teams? What can be done to prevent this from happening? Cause you know if your team takes a stand, then some GM will be stupid enough to sign your free agent to a ridiculous deal.

Is the NHLPA at fault for encouraging players from extorting as much money as possible? What about all the investigations and threats when players sign these long term deals?

Dash wrote:Can anyone then answer why? Are we then in agreement that the Crosby, Malkin and Ovechkin deals are sickening and not good for the teams? What can be done to prevent this from happening? Cause you know if your team takes a stand, then some GM will be stupid enough to sign your free agent to a ridiculous deal.

Is the NHLPA at fault for encouraging players from extorting as much money as possible? What about all the investigations and threats when players sign these long term deals?

Ultimately the player makes his own decision. That's part of why they pay union dues and commissions to their agents. So they can ask for top dollar and have someone to blame when they are seen as greedy.

The way to go (until the next CBA perhaps) will be front loaded contracts, ala Pronger, Hossa etc.

Big money per season
Lower cap hit

Best of both worlds for the people involved.

Can't really blame players/agents for trying to get as much as possible. If GMs dont meet the asking price, someone else will.

Teams need a few 'stars' to get fans to come to the games and help the team win.

Best you can hope for is draft and develop players well and hopefully they'll take a hometown discount to stay once they're eligible for UFA.

Regarding Kovalchuk, I can't see any sane non-desperate GM giving him more than AO.

Wow, some teams are screwed next year *coughChicagocough*.

Only a few etams that have a lot of cap space to sign Kovalchuk @ 11M and ice a 20 man roster.

ATL seems to have enough space

PRESS RELEASE:

Below is a statement just released by Atlanta Thrashers GM Don Waddell concerning signing Ilya Kovalchuk:

Our goal from the start of this negotiating process was to sign Ilya Kovalchuk to a l


long-term contract. During the process, Kovy affirmed his desire to be a Thrasher for life. We’ve spent several months exploring scenarios with Kovy and his agent to reach a mutually beneficial agreement, and offered many lucrative packages in an attempt to meet his financial objectives.

Unfortunately, we’ve reached an impasse and at this point he has declined all of our proposals and we can’t reasonably go any higher. Ultimately, we offered Kovy more than $101 million over 12 years, which would have been the highest contract signed by an impending unrestricted free agent in the history of the league. If accepted, this contract would have been the second highest offer ever to any NHL
player. We also met his desire to be the highest paid player based on average annual salary with a separate offer of 7 years at $10M per year ($70M). This offer is $0.5M higher per year than any other player. If we went beyond these offers, we would not be able to retain the young players on our roster when it came time to sign them, or invest in other top tier players needed to assemble a truly competitive team.

Therefore, we are aggressively exploring all of our options as we move
forward.

101 million over 12 years? That's 8.4 million, who does Waddell thing Kovalchuk is? A scrub? What an insult.

We also met his desire to be the highest paid player based on
average annual salary with a separate offer of 7 years at $10M per year
($70M). This offer is $0.5M higher per year than any other player.

That's quite a demand. What an Donkey.

He's not worth that. Not in the least. Score 50 goals, 100 points, win the Hart and the Conn Smythe and we'll talk.

Why is Kovalchuk or his agent even bothering talking to Atlanta? It's just a waste of time for all parties involved. He doesn't want to stay, deal with it.