Dreger: Ilya Kovalchuk in California; meeting with Kings and Sharks

[deaderhead28]

Has he? Seems to me he went home, won an Olympic gold medal and made millions of dollars in Russia. Paid for it, my ass.

Thinking the Oilers board needs more of your insight opinion than the Kings Organization does.I'm sure Blake and the league can handle this.Thanks tho

 

[deaderhead28]

Only one has a chance at being a King, and he's not Russian.

Your magic 8 ball told you this?

 

[aufheben]

What a kick in the nuts that would be

Visits with LA and SJ...signs with Anaheim.

Join the club, it seemed certain a month ago that he’d be a Ranger lmao

 

[Bank Shot]

Anze Kopitar has never played with someone like Kovalchuk.

I'd be interested in seeing how much better he produces playing with someone other than Dustin Brown/Ryan Smyth/Justin Williams/etc.

Probably the same.

Like when Heatley went to play with Thornton everyone expected them to blow up, but their production stayed the same.

They would be a better team though.

 

[Shark Finn]

Yeah, well, ok. Sure I'd wager anyone in the NHL would take a shot at him on a reasonable deal, I'm just not sure how reasonable it'll be.

 

[glovesave_35]

...Caps to sign him as a replacement for Ovi , He gets a real shot at his ring and they get a suitable replacement.

What?

 

[belair]

Thinking the Oilers board needs more of your insight opinion than the Kings Organization does.I'm sure Blake and the league can handle this.Thanks tho

Just clarifying what he said for the uninformed. Some people might misconstrue 'paying for it' as some kind of punishment.

 

[Revelation]

If by "someone like" you mean "washed up superstar" he actually played with Iginla just last year.

He said Kovalchuk not Frolov lol

 

[greasysnapper]

If the Sharks bought out Martin, and Thornton gave them a sweetheart hometown deal, they could conceivably have

Kovi - Couture - Hertl
Kane - Pavelski - Donskoi
Labanc - Thornton - Meier
Boedker - Tierney - Sorensen

Ryan - Burns
Vlasic - Braun
Dillon - Demelo

It'll likely never happen, but if you're the Sharks with a smaller window with some of the vets like Pavelski, Thornton, Burns, Vlasic -- heck even Couture is 29, why wouldn't you roll the dice on a short term deal with Kovalchuk. That would give them top 3-5 offensive depth (Thornton as a 3C, Boedker in the bottom6 with some of the young kids like Meier), a really potent powerplay, and a pretty solid top 6 forward core. Heck their top4 on defense isn't even that bad, all will depend on Ryan's growth.

I actually think Kovi signing with the team is a huge possibility because of the Pete DeBoer. Kovi was a beast under DeBoer, and they had that huge run together.

 

[dellzor]

If the Sharks bought out Martin, and Thornton gave them a sweetheart hometown deal, they could conceivably have

Kovi - Couture - Hertl
Kane - Pavelski - Donskoi
Labanc - Thornton - Meier
Boedker - Tierney - Sorensen

Ryan - Burns
Vlasic - Braun
Dillon - Demelo

It'll likely never happen, but if you're the Sharks with a smaller window with some of the vets like Pavelski, Thornton, Burns, Vlasic -- heck even Couture is 29, why wouldn't you roll the dice on a short term deal with Kovalchuk. That would give them top 3-5 offensive depth (Thornton as a 3C, Boedker in the bottom6 with some of the young kids like Meier), a really potent powerplay, and a pretty solid top 6 forward core. Heck their top4 on defense isn't even that bad, all will depend on Ryan's growth.

I actually think Kovi signing with the team is a huge possibility because of the Pete DeBoer. Kovi was a beast under DeBoer, and they had that huge run together.

That's one solid team

 

[puckIuck]

hell probably sign with the jets

 

[NORiculous]

I think LA would be a good fit, depending on the cap.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

Probably the same.

Like when Heatley went to play with Thornton everyone expected them to blow up, but their production stayed the same.

They would be a better team though.

That's because left handers haven't benefitted the way Cheechoo and Pavelski have. For whatever reason Thornton's game benefits right shooting wingers more.

Plus Heatley was starting to regress.

 

[kingsfan28]

Join the club, it seemed certain a month ago that he’d be a Ranger lmao

He's going to the highest bidder, just like last time.

 

[periferal]

It's not unfair that he's asking for that, but man, I hope my team isn't the one giving him that contract.

What if you had tons of cap space?

 

[periferal]

Stand by for this to be an instant regret deal where he’s overpaid and underperforming...

I'm no Kovy fan, but 31 goals in 53 games in the 2nd best league in the world is less than shabby.

 

[periferal]

He's going to the highest bidder, just like last time.

But I thought he wanted to win?

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

If the Sharks bought out Martin, and Thornton gave them a sweetheart hometown deal, they could conceivably have

Kovi - Couture - Hertl
Kane - Pavelski - Donskoi
Labanc - Thornton - Meier
Boedker - Tierney - Sorensen

Ryan - Burns
Vlasic - Braun
Dillon - Demelo

It'll likely never happen, but if you're the Sharks with a smaller window with some of the vets like Pavelski, Thornton, Burns, Vlasic -- heck even Couture is 29, why wouldn't you roll the dice on a short term deal with Kovalchuk. That would give them top 3-5 offensive depth (Thornton as a 3C, Boedker in the bottom6 with some of the young kids like Meier), a really potent powerplay, and a pretty solid top 6 forward core. Heck their top4 on defense isn't even that bad, all will depend on Ryan's growth.

I actually think Kovi signing with the team is a huge possibility because of the Pete DeBoer. Kovi was a beast under DeBoer, and they had that huge run together.

They can get that top-9 group together without Thornton taking a hometown discount. They might need to let go of Tierney and Boedker who would be redundant on the 4th line anyhow.

That's one solid team

Definitely. It’s a classic Sharks lineup; solid enough to win 45-50 games, and win 1 or 2 playoff rounds. Whole lot of very good players. Also not overwhelmingly good enough to win the Stanley Cup, so what’s the point?

The Sharks need to focus all their focus and assets on acquiring John Tavares. If he isn’t available, they need to heavily pursue Subban, Karlssson, and any other legitimate superstars that may be available. If they can do that and they have room to add Kovalchuk, sure; I have no doubt that Kovalchuk will be fantastic for whatever team adds him. But he won’t put this San Jose team over the top.

 

[Choralone]

Anze Kopitar has never played with someone like Kovalchuk.

I'd be interested in seeing how much better he produces playing with someone other than Dustin Brown/Ryan Smyth/Justin Williams/etc.

Well, there was Gaborik, and they looked great together in 2014...

 

[Sota Popinski]

Definitely. It’s a classic Sharks lineup; solid enough to win 45-50 games, and win 1 or 2 playoff rounds. Whole lot of very good players. Also not overwhelmingly good enough to win the Stanley Cup, so what’s the point?

And everyone saw the Caps having an "overwhelmingly good enough to win the cup" team...

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

And everyone saw the Caps having an "overwhelmingly good enough to win the cup" team...

Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, and Holtby are way better than the 3 best players on the Sharks. Carlson is closer to Burns than any of our forwards are to Ovechkin/Kuznetsov. And you could probably make the argument that Carlson is closer to Burns than Jones is to Holtby.

 

[BlueDream]

I think both these teams (especially LA) need to focus on getting faster if they really want to go somewhere. I don’t see Kovalchuk really being the guy to target. LA is better off trying to trade for a guy like MaxPac or Hoffman even though it’ll cost assets.

 

[Sota Popinski]

Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, and Holtby are way better than the 3 best players on the Sharks. Carlson is closer to Burns than any of our forwards are to Ovechkin/Kuznetsov. And you could probably make the argument that Carlson is closer to Burns than Jones is to Holtby.

What does that have to do with anything? You just picked an arbitrary number of players and are representing that as a predictive measure of the teams success. How is 3 relevant when about 19 guys play every night? Who has the best 4 player combo? How about 5?

Also, pump the brakes on Kuznetsov. He is now better than any forward on the Sharks?

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

What does that have to do with anything? You just picked an arbitrary number of players and are representing that as a predictive measure of the teams success. How is 3 relevant when about 19 guys play every night? Who has the best 4 player combo? How about 5?

Also, pump the brakes on Kuznetsov. He is now better than any forward on the Sharks?

The best 4 or 5 player combo would still go to Washington quite easily. Washington’s best players are much better than San Jose’s. You need elite superstars playing at that level in order to win. The Sharks don’t have a single forward at Ovechkin or Kuznetsov’s level at this point and they sure as hell don’t have the defense to make up for that.

Yes, Kuznetsov is better than any forward on the Sharks. Is that a serious question? He had 83 points in the regular season this year. No Shark besides 39 year old Joe Thornton has ever scored 80 points in their career. Then, Kuznetsov had 32 points in the playoffs. 115 points in 103 games, regular season + playoffs. There is no forward on the San Jose Sharks even remotely capable of reaching that level in 2019.

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

I pity the team paying 6m/y for 3 years to this joke of a guy