If it's an 8.5 cap hit. Then NO THANKS!!! Drew Doughty is the most important signing on this team.... I glad say no thanks to Kovalchuk services in favor of Doughtys. If this came down to money then Dean made the right move.
You don't need a boat load of super duper stars to win the cup. Hell look at the Devils cup winning teams, there was a ton of GREAT players on those teams. But aside from Brouder who was helped by a great defense (not meant to be a shot at marty) They still managed to win multiple cups.
I'm heart broken that Kovy didn't sign here, cause he is a SUPERSTAR! But we would be a worse team long term if we had sign Kovalchuk at a 8.5 cap hit!
Nevermind it appears to be 17 years.... but GOOD GAWD!!!!
Rolston has an NTC. Why would the Islander do a division rival a favor?
Rolston has already indicated he would waive the NTC, we will see. Perhaps Paulie Walnuts has already paid him a visit.
NYI only does a deal if they get some good young assets in return. However, this is where I believe Lou may have some difficulty. He traded his best young assets to Atanta in the first Kovalchuk deal. Overall between the 1st trade, the assets Lou will now have to move to get under the cap this season, and the cap hit, Kovalchuk has cost the Devils plenty. Poor asset management by Lou in my opinion.
What forward did we lose out on by pursuing Kovy? Everyone is still out there, whether UFA or via trade.
Pretty much. I laughed during this whole episode when I kept seeing "DL needs to move on NOW and forget Kovalchuk/sign someone else!!!" when it was pretty apparent that Kovy's deal was pretty much stopping significant UFA forward signings anyway.
Today, the game really begins in the rest of the UFA market.
Wyshynski's twitter- "Devils sacrifice ZP for Kovy." Don't know if that's true, but I cuold very easily make the case that Parise will/should get more than Kovy. They put up similar numbers over the past couple years and Parise is the homegrown/US star that could make marketing easier.
Who wants to bet Lou retires after this year when that has to be managed?
Where did you get this from? his twitter states "Zero chance Devils sacrifice ZP for Kovy"
That is all bogus speculation. Parise makes 5 now....he won't make any more than 7 as an RFA. They only need about 2 million.
Arnott's 4.5 mil and Langenbruner's 2.8 mil comes off the books.
They will have ZERO trouble keeping Parise.
Yup, no way they would sign Kovalchuk if they risked losing Parise.
Very surprising to see him go to another team, I thought DL had it in the bag. Cap number will probably be very friendly as well if the 17 year part is true. Congrats Devils fans.
i don't think the Devils are going to have any trouble keeping Kovi and Parise... they're just be built the wrong way and continue on with first round exits...
I have been saying this...so don't think it is knewjerk.
There will always be RFA's to extend years down the road.
If we are going to rely on roster progression to get us anywhere you may as well call us the Nashville Predators.
So, we did well last year....Frolov isn't going to be as easy to replace as everyone thinks. Now we will have to give up assets to do it. Whether we pick up Gagne, or Rolston, or someone they are still going to keep us maybe as good as last year.
They want to tattoo Kings on these players *****? They had better start making consistent DEEP playoff runs or it won't mean anything to be a King.
17 years, how is the NHL not looking into a contract for 17 years? Wow.
I hope we do something fast. Lombardi better be on the phone right now and making plan B happen. I'm guessing he already knows what Plan B is and what players we have to give up.
Now, that being said, depending on who we get, a dman and 1-2 top 6 could still improve this team greatly. I'm really disappointed, but if it came down to locking up our core and having one player in Kovy, I guess I would pick the core.
What it really comes down to at this point is, we have to keep the onus on having players come through the system and be productive. Until the Kings are perennial contenders, and no one 100 point season doesnt do that, the best we are going to do is middle of the pack UFA's at large contracts, and gritty players we trade for... which we overpay for if we resign. From being promised Kovalfhuk to being force fed something akin to Kaberle and Modin.
The worst part is that everyone was under the impression he was going to sign here the last few days. It went quiet Sat/Sun and then Bam! He signs in NJ.
Is it just me, or do you guys want to see the Devils struggle with the cap in the next few years and also go downhill once Brodeur retires? Petty, I know, but if the report is true, 17 years! Wowzers!
I hope we sign Doughty soon. That would be nice, as would a trade.
Wow! 17 years, truly a deal with the Devil..I guess Kovy forgot Brodeur isn't in his prime anymore and the Devils, on paper, mind you don't look all that special.
The Kings will be okay in the end. I still like this team and losing out on Kovy won't change the fact I've always supported the Kings.
If we can add Gagne and/or maybe Kaberle/Bieksa I won't mind that too much. The question will be what sort of assests to we surrender.
I would like to get one of those deals in before they disappear... he was really the only shot at it though...
Why?
That deal goes until he's 44. With the type of game he plays, there's no way he'll have his same explosiveness when he hits 35, and there's no way they'll find a trade partner at that point if he's making millions a year. Whether they keep him on the roster or buy him out, he'll still be getting paid til he's 44 in some way and he'll still be on the cap. If they buy him out, he'll be on the cap even longer.
Exactly. Only thing that bothers me is the loss to Cammy. Why did we trade Cammy, lose Frolov and not get Kovy?
So we could be this far under the cap and not have added one forward or D man this summer? So we could sign Johnson, Simmonds and Doughty? They have no excuse if they lose one of those guys.
In the poll I said that we wouldn't end up getting Kovy but i also said that I couldn't see him staying in NJ so there ya go. Not signing him has allot of trickle down ramifications for us and it isn't a good thing to be so deeply involved in negotiations with a major ufa and lose him to another team when it happens to you "all the time" but I absolutely disagree with those of us who say the following:
1, that we now will officially suck and regress.
While I think that getting Gagme is an awful idea especially when you couple it with his over $5m cap hit for this coming year and the fact he is seriously injury prone. Also if we are to trade for him he will cost us an asset (or more). Add in the fact that unless JW is part of the deal to get him that we will have three of our top six being over payed, under played (due to injury) and getting on in age.
Still, our cupboard is full of great young prospects and we are more than just a good team, we are a budding great young team, IK may have sped up the process to our achieving greatness but it is the rest of the pieces that were already in place that made it possible. We still have them and while I can't see a solution I will wait until I see what DL does now before I become overly critical of "HIM" and our ownership. In the end it will have nothing to do with how good i feel about our young and talented deep team.
2, Those of us who feel that they should stop their plans of buying season tickets or supporting the team. I mean not buying season tickets sends a strong message and its your money so whatever decision anyone of us would make as an individual is the correct one and beyond reproach all that I am saying is that it should warrant careful consideration before such a decision is made.
Canceling plans to buy tickets can also send the message to our team that we have given up on them and then it could become a self fulfilling prophecy. Maybe it comes with being built up and then just beaten down by the team for so long or maybe its just the way things go but I would only encourage people to wait and see what the solutions are before they make any rash decisions.
Finally imo, it isn't that we didn't end up signing IK that bothers me, its that yet another year under DL we have been told that we are in the running for a player and that we will almost certainly get him only to have things end up the exact same way all over again.
Fool me once shame on you.
Fool me twice shame on me.
Fool me over and over and over again and eventually I will learn and give up on anything that you promise or suggest as even a remote possibility ever happening.
My concern is that the DL pattern has not only been established, it has seemingly been written in stone and while it may or may not be the pattern to follow, I hate that I was caught with my pants down looking for something better.
A handful of hope is better than nothing, right?
If you can't be with the one you love. Love the one you're with!
