Gulitti: Devils have invested a lot in Ilya Kovalchuk

[95Crash]

The Devils already have invested quite a bit in Kovalchuk beyond that blockbuster contract. From picking him up in a private jet after acquiring him from Atlanta on Feb. 4, to the extended minutes and role he was used in, to the team’s persistent efforts to re-sign him and salary cap ramifications that would create, the Devils have catered to this player like none in their history.

In doing so, they’ve made it clear to the other players – at the risk of alienating some who have been here far longer – that this is the guy the organization will be centered around in the years to come.

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[DevilNurn]

Seems like Gulitti is exaggerating but I definitely see his point. I would hope that Parise/Kovalchuk could be our Crosby/Malkin or our Ovechkin/Semin or even our St. Louis/Lecavalier. Except it's hard to tell who's who in some of those comparisons. Since Marty's on his way out that's what this organization needs.

[Aneurysm776]

Defiantly an exageration because everyone knows the future face of this franchise is Parise. Lou needs to lock him down next

[Triumph]

gulitti knows how to hit the panic button without being brooksian about it.

that said - why not? new jersey got him for a relative song, and it's doubtful that a player of this (potential) caliber comes along in the next 10 years that new jersey would feel good committing to.

there is little doubt that this contract will be a burden in 5 or 6 years - look at the scoring rates of hull, selanne, jagr, etc. - if the devils can't get kovalchuk to become a smarter player, and i don't think they will succeed in doing this to the extent that they'd have to, kovalchuk as a 30 goal 30 assist guy isn't going to be pretty.

[grcenter47]

people like kovalchuk don't come around too often. a parise/kovalchuk combo would be amazing. i think this guy is just trying to stir the pot

[sokar]

the devils know parise is the face of the future they will do every thing to hold on to him. the only way the devils are going to lose parise is if parise wants to leave.

[titans04]

people like kovalchuk don't come around too often. a parise/kovalchuk combo would be amazing. i think this guy is just trying to stir the pot

Thoughts on why if this guy is so special were there only two teams in the mix and LA barely at best and only because Grossman kept crawling back to them. Even their best offer wasn't in the same ballpark. Makes no sense to me if he's as good as most people here think he is why was there so little interest?

[Devils731]

Thoughts on why if this guy is so special were there only two teams in the mix and LA barely at best and only because Grossman kept crawling back to them. Even their best offer wasn't in the same ballpark. Makes no sense to me if he's as good as most people here think he is why was there so little interest?

Teams that weren't good knew they had no shot at signing him so didn't bother. Teams with little cap space knew they didn't have the money he wanted so didn't bother. Teams that already had a lot of money tied up in a few forwards couldn't spend their cap space on more forwards so didn't bother. So you needed a winning team, with cap space, and the willingness to use the space on a forward, that narrowed down the possibilities greatly, IMO.

[Triumph]

Thoughts on why if this guy is so special were there only two teams in the mix and LA barely at best and only because Grossman kept crawling back to them. Even their best offer wasn't in the same ballpark. Makes no sense to if he's as good as most people here think he is why was there so little interest?

casting aside the fact that obvious troll is obvious:

LA barely at best? lol. then you go on to cite their 'best offer' as if you definitively know what it was, and i'm of course assuming that you think the commonly cited figures of 15 years and 80 million dollars was their 'best offer'. i agree that teams who offer guys 15 year deals are barely interested. 'well we're a little piqued - could you maybe stay the rest of your career with us?'

the much, much more obvious answer has to do with the salary cap freezing out the teams that would normally be interested in such a player, with the rest likely being standoffish because of kovalchuk's playoff record and league-wide reputation. everyone knew before july 1 that kovalchuk was going to be too expensive for most teams, and that there wouldn't be a lot of suitors.

Edited August 8, 2010 by Triumph

[ZeroGravityFat]

a 6 mil hit means we can have our cake and eat it too, we just need rolston and langy gone.

[TheMazz]

a 6 mil hit means we can have our cake and eat it too, we just need rolston and langy gone.

Langy gone? I don't know man...he might be 35 years old but hes still a productive player. I see where your coming from though. We need to focus on younger players and make sure they are the ones with the bigger contracts instead of vets like Langs and Rolston. However, every good team needs one or two good vets on their team. They are like...the glue that holds the team together. Lol. However, I think Langs would be an easy sell in a trade considering he was the USA team captain last year and his winning history. Rolston needs to go ASAP he's just there for nostalgia at this point.

Edited August 8, 2010 by TheMazz

[msweet]

slow news day I see

[Legion15]

people like kovalchuk don't come around too often. a parise/kovalchuk combo would be amazing. i think this guy is just trying to stir the pot

Yeah they're rare. Theyre extremely rare for the devils. Especially with years of defense-first-scoring-second as the mentality. Sure defense keeps the enemy from scoring, but eventually you need to put some points on the board.

[Marv4Life]

Langy gone? I don't know man...he might be 35 years old but hes still a productive player. I see where your coming from though. We need to focus on younger players and make sure they are the ones with the bigger contracts instead of vets like Langs and Rolston. However, every good team needs one or two good vets on their team. They are like...the glue that holds the team together. Lol. However, I think Langs would be an easy sell in a trade considering he was the USA team captain last year and his winning history. Rolston needs to go ASAP he's just there for nostalgia at this point.

The guy openly admitted that he couldn't get up for the playoffs. As a captain. Add on the drama he caused late in the regular season and it's not shocking as to people wanting him gone.

[titans04]

Teams that weren't good knew they had no shot at signing him so didn't bother. Teams with little cap space knew they didn't have the money he wanted so didn't bother. Teams that already had a lot of money tied up in a few forwards couldn't spend their cap space on more forwards so didn't bother. So you needed a winning team, with cap space, and the willingness to use the space on a forward, that narrowed down the possibilities greatly, IMO.

Could be but if a really top tier guy becomes available I would think teams would do whatever it takes to clear the space. I find it very weird that only two teams were in the chase. Also during the FA period I beleive TG thought that Kovy would entertain offers from teams that were on the rise heading in the right direction no necessarily only the top teams would have a shot.

[hobgoblin933]

How do you think signing a guy like Kovalchuk makes Parise feel? It takes a ton of pressure of him whenever he's having a bad game/week whatever. Not to mention it shows him the team is making a genuine effort to give him all the help he can get.

[Devil Dan 56]

Could be but if a really top tier guy becomes available I would think teams would do whatever it takes to clear the space. I find it very weird that only two teams were in the chase. Also during the FA period I beleive TG thought that Kovy would entertain offers from teams that were on the rise heading in the right direction no necessarily only the top teams would have a shot.

Only 2 teams rose above. The Isles wanted in, but they are far away from being a cup contender.

[Triumph]

Could be but if a really top tier guy becomes available I would think teams would do whatever it takes to clear the space. I find it very weird that only two teams were in the chase. Also during the FA period I beleive TG thought that Kovy would entertain offers from teams that were on the rise heading in the right direction no necessarily only the top teams would have a shot.

look at all of the deals that were 6+ years long signed by teams that had never employed the player in question. that's gomez, briere, redden, campbell, timonen, hossa. do these look like good contracts to you? 3 of them are terrible already. briere hasn't been able to stay healthy. timonen is very good but not great, and hossa started his 12 year deal by having surgery.

kovalchuk was not going to accept less than 9M per for a deal shorter than 6 years, and that kind of space is just impossible to clear. what he wanted was a lifetime deal, and that's what he got; it's real hard to offer that when you don't really know the player. lou admitted that he would not have made this deal without trading for kovalchuk first.

Edited August 8, 2010 by Triumph

[maxpower]

Who else was going to offer him a deal in either of the needed realms when the teams at the floor don't want to spend any money? One pretended to as a PR stunt. That's it.

[grcenter47]

I just think the Devils were the perfect team at the right time to sign him. Devils could offer the money he wants and are perennial playoff contenders

[Neb00rs]

Teams that weren't good knew they had no shot at signing him so didn't bother. Teams with little cap space knew they didn't have the money he wanted so didn't bother. Teams that already had a lot of money tied up in a few forwards couldn't spend their cap space on more forwards so didn't bother. So you needed a winning team, with cap space, and the willingness to use the space on a forward, that narrowed down the possibilities greatly, IMO.

This says it perfectly.

[ice dog]

yeah ... it was a "perfect storm" scenario for the Devils to land Kovalchuck.

just hope that Mr. Bloch has sympathy for the Devils tomorrow!

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

gulitti knows how to hit the panic button without being brooksian about it.

that said - why not? new jersey got him for a relative song, and it's doubtful that a player of this (potential) caliber comes along in the next 10 years that new jersey would feel good committing to.

there is little doubt that this contract will be a burden in 5 or 6 years - look at the scoring rates of hull, selanne, jagr, etc. - if the devils can't get kovalchuk to become a smarter player, and i don't think they will succeed in doing this to the extent that they'd have to, kovalchuk as a 30 goal 30 assist guy isn't going to be pretty.

In bold: pretty much sums up my feelings about him. This is just not the kind of guy you commit this heavily to. I get the feeling he'll get a lot of leeway here (like he did last year among many circles...he put up a PPG as a Devils, etc.) as people try to look for silver linings, but I think tying up this kind of coin in a guy who doesn't seem blessed with great hockey instincts and has had his motivation questioned before is a pretty scary proposition.

[mrthemike]

yeah ... it was a "perfect storm" scenario for the Devils to land Kovalchuck.

just hope that Mr. Bloch has sympathy for the Devils tomorrow!

I hope Mr Bloch rules based on the CBA, not his emotions...

[Triumph]

In bold: pretty much sums up my feelings about him. This is just not the kind of guy you commit this heavily to. I get the feeling he'll get a lot of leeway here (like he did last year among many circles...he put up a PPG as a Devils, etc.) as people try to look for silver linings, but I think tying up this kind of coin in a guy who doesn't seem blessed with great hockey instincts and has had his motivation questioned before is a pretty scary proposition.

while i'm not going to disagree with myself, that's 5 years off. meanwhile if we can get parise signed, the devils have two guaranteed scoring lines with those players alone. you realize i am comparing kovalchuk to the best scorers of our time, right? kovalchuk was slightly unlucky to only be a point a game scorer.

right now, assuming the contract is upheld, it's hard to imagine the team as anything less than top half in offense, and top 10 in defense - that's what stanley cup teams are built on.

Edited August 9, 2010 by Triumph