Who won the Kovalchuk trade?

If someone puts a gun to your head and says give me your wallet or I'll shoot you and you give him your wallet, you a not a loser because you lost your wallet, you had no choice. Waddel had no choice and will continue to have no choice.

I feel bad for the guy because he is a great hockey man who gets screwed over by being in just about the worst hockey market possible. If he had anything resembling stability or a crowd to watch him team play he would be pretty close to raising a Stanley Cup by now IMO. They guy has no options.

dennycrane wrote:The Thrashers ownership has been fighting in court for a couple of years now. It would be a major story in a market that cared about hockey. I hope the team moves.

Best player went to the Devils, so I say they won the trade. It will be a big win if they can resign him.

I was never a big fan of that saying.

It's like saying you would trade Ovechkin and Bradley for Kane, Toews and Keith and saying Washington won the deal.

I think Bergfors is vastly underrated here also. Waddel got fair value for a RENTAL I would say, so I voted even.

wprager wrote:I voted NJ by a lot. They give up a 1st and 2nd and spare parts. Oduya is nothing more than a 2/3 pairing guy playing in front of (God I hate to say it) great goalie. Lou also gets rid of a headache in Cormier.

Talk was that Waddel made this trade now to save $860K over trading him at the deadline. And that was the best deal he could get a month early. If that's true, that's terribly short-sighted.

You don't even talk about Bergfors who is the best player out of the parts?

They're not spare parts IMO. Bergfors and Oduya definitely aren't. Cormier should be good and a 1st is always good. I think also that Ohlund may have had some input here - Swedish D-man, probably knows him, Olympian partner (I think?), solid player, needed to wake up, change of scenery? It all sounds logical, we'll see if it works out.

I'm voting even, but I would have voted Atlanta win if Teneby was in there.

FLA getting a 3rd + Leopold for JBo in June ought to put this in perspective for everybody. You can't lose a big piece like Kovalchuk for nothing, so you take the best deal available. Bergfors + Oduya + Cormier + 1st and 2nd might not look so great, but it looks a whole lot better than what FLA got. Waddel was in between a rock and a hard place, and probably did as well as could be expected.

Still, Lombardi needs to buy some balls IMO.

marakh wrote:Still, Lombardi needs to buy some balls IMO.

I was just thinking that. What the heck is his issue? Time to get off the crapper and deal for Whitney and bite the bullet and re-sign him. And to think, the Kings could have had Heatley - and it likely wouldn't have affected them the way they thought it would depth wise. Now, they're out of the Kovalchuk race and are bristling (rightfully so) at having to re-sign a soon to be 38 year old to a 2 year extension. But, they're not in the running in the West as it stands. They're gonna need something.

http://www.ottawasun.com/sports/hockey/2010/02/04/12748126.html

The Senators tried to be a player in the Ilya Kovalchuk sweepstakes
before he was dealt to New Jersey, but couldn’t meet the asking price.

Sources confirmed Thursday that Senators GM Bryan Murray made a
pitch to Don Waddell for the superstar winger, but the Thrashers
weren’t willing to take winger Jonathan Cheechoo’s $3-million US cap
hit and wanted a lot more than what Ottawa was offering.

Crafty of BM to try and get rid of Cheechoo but I guess Waddell isn't that dumb.

Haha, no harm in trying I guess.

Yeah, no, apparently we were quite involved. I wonder what we were offering...

Regin, Wiercioch, Cheechoo, 1st? Or more. Or less?

Hmm...if Murray was involved in this...what else is he potentially involved in?

SpezDispenser wrote:Hmm...if Murray was involved in this...what else is he potentially involved in?

I dunno, but there's a big drop off after Kovy.

SpezDispenser wrote:Hmm...if Murray was involved in this...what else is he potentially involved in?

In before SSF posts something, well... nothing.

marakh wrote:

wprager wrote:I voted NJ by a lot. They give up a 1st and 2nd and spare parts. Oduya is nothing more than a 2/3 pairing guy playing in front of (God I hate to say it) great goalie. Lou also gets rid of a headache in Cormier.

Talk was that Waddel made this trade now to save $860K over trading him at the deadline. And that was the best deal he could get a month early. If that's true, that's terribly short-sighted.

You don't even talk about Bergfors who is the best player out of the parts?

Maybe in a years or two, but right now it's Oduya hands down.

hemlock wrote:

marakh wrote:

wprager wrote:I voted NJ by a lot. They give up a 1st and 2nd and spare parts. Oduya is nothing more than a 2/3 pairing guy playing in front of (God I hate to say it) great goalie. Lou also gets rid of a headache in Cormier.

Talk was that Waddel made this trade now to save $860K over trading him at the deadline. And that was the best deal he could get a month early. If that's true, that's terribly short-sighted.

You don't even talk about Bergfors who is the best player out of the parts?

Maybe in a years or two, but right now it's Oduya hands down.

YEah potentially, of course.

marakh wrote:Still, Lombardi needs to buy some balls IMO.

Holds on to his prospects like they have actually done something. Lombardi is gutless. That LA will be bounced first round and be laughed off the ice then all the LA fans will say "what happened? I thought we were suppose to contend."

Lombardi had every asset to make that happen and he let it slip away, what an idiot. If he was playing hard ball the moron just struck out.

SpezDispenser wrote:Hmm...if Murray was involved in this...what else is he potentially involved in?

Classic Murray. Get in on the big fish and then we find out after why we didn't get it.

There's an easy answer to the question posed in this thread.

Who won the Kovalchuk trade? Kovalchuk did.