Well, it's an exciting fan to be a Thrashers time. I probably typed that wrong, but I've been moving house (moving apartment, if you want to be literal about it) all day and fuck me I'm tired.
But there are important news items in the world, news items your Chronicle will never be able to know about because they're locked behind a firewall at ESPN Insider.
It's well known that Don Waddell and Rick Dudley are trying to trade somebody for something. Secret Chronicle operatives are telling us the folks at ESPN are saying that Waddudley might make a trade for Patrick Sharp. How that would actually happen, I have no idea. But everyone knows Chicago is nervous about the cap, what with nailing down Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, and Duncan Keith and all...
So this is important, maybe, but I guess we'll never know, even if we do get Sharp.
Really. What if we trade for Sharp and never even realize it, because we've never paid ESPN?
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Was all gonna "Hey Morty! You fail at English!"..then I kept reading.
Sorry for jumping to conclusions. And speaking of conclusions, Mr. Buccigross over at the Worldwide Leader offers his two cents on the boys in Blue.
"The Thrashers are absolutely for real. You must understand that right now. They are well-coached, getting good goaltending, have a dynamic defense and score goals. But I would make my best offer to Ilya Kovalchuk now. He turns 27 in April. Eight years at $8 million a year seems about right, and if you want to throw three of those smaller numbers at the end of the deal to get the cap number down, fine. If Kovy doesn't take a deal like that, he obviously wants to play somewhere else, which is his right. I would then entertain other offers. If that's the case, I would demand a top-three forward, a top-six forward and a No. 1 draft pick, or I would keep him and ride him into the playoffs and maybe a playoff round win (which might change Kovalchuk's mind). But that's a big gamble to take if Atlanta is offering a juicy package."
Thanks for the tip, GPY. I always knew Bucci would come around to celebrating the Thrashers again.
I think a top 3 guy, a top 6 guy, and a 1ster is more or less right for the Czar, not that I'd ever want to trade him. The contract situation is getting weirder by the day though. I mean, what more does Kovy need to see?
I don't want to jump to conclusions, not least because I don't have any conclusions about this, but I am getting really, really anxious.
Agreed on the Kovy trade scenario. I also think we can use an event from American history to stir things up in the negotations. Not just with Kovy, but with all our pending FAs (seemingly half our team?)
Get Kovy, Pavelec, Afinogenov, Army, and Little in a room with their agents, Waddudley, the damned ASG, and a huge checkbook. Give them a room with no windows, no heating/air, take this shit back to the 1770s. Nobody leaves till we get this resolved. Make compromises. Hear each other out. Get to a solution on these issues sooner rather than later. Either agree to agree or agree to disagree. You're gonna be here or you're gonna be gone. No more pussyfooting around this stuff.
Jesus H. that's amazing.
THAT'S the screenplay we should be writing. Oh well, Ten Gallon Dick will have to declare independence for all of us. Independence from Kovy-anxiety.
Looks like the Versus boys plan to dissect our Kovy "dilemma" and offer up their two six-pence!
Don't reckon they'll have much in the way of new insights on the subject matter.
Wow, they are sold on Kovy signing the contract imminently!! Amazing what a little winning and a menu of Russian excitement will do for your rep! The way Bill Patrick is acting, the rumours are "rampant that ATL is about to sign Kovy to a long-term deal worth $9-10 M / year"....DUH(5). Let's hope their optimism is realized very soon.
"Me fail English? That's unpossible!"--Ralph Wiggam
DW told Vivlamore that “Into the season, once he got a good feel, after we played 10, 12, 15 games he told his agent see what kind of contract we can get.”
That right there tells me that Kovy was pretty happy with what he was seeing and wanted to get negotiations underway. That was about 10 games ago. What has happened in the last 11 games? Oh yeah, 8-1-2. So things have only gotten better since then.
As for the Blackhawks rumors, the issue isn't that they're nervous about the cap, the issue is that the CBA says that you cannot commit to more spend next season more than the current salary cap. Meaning that at no point may you have contracts in place for players currently on your roster that will make next season's roster worth more than 56 million or whatever the cap is right now. If the Kane/Toews/Keith contracts are what everyone thinks they are, then the Hawks would be obligated to 60 mil next season for players currently under contract.
To be able to finalize those three contracts, the Hawks have to move 4 mil worth of next season's contracts. Moving impending free agents won't cut it. So they have to move either a couple of 2m guys or Patrick Sharp. They'd love to ship out Brian Campbell, but no one's going to take his contract no matter how eager we were to sign him to an even worse one a year and a half ago.
How desperate the Hawks are to make a deal depends on how eager they are to finalize those three contracts. If we keep our chemistry strong while making a move to bring Sharp in I'd love to see us do it.
Chicago has quite the dilemma indeed and it shall be very interesting to see how it pans out. With Kane, Toews & Keith all getting considerable base salary raises (for a measuring stick, keep in mind that Dave Bolland just got a raise to $3.375 M per season!!), there is no way that they can be salary cap compliant without unloading Campbell, Huet or Sharp. No one will want the former two so it's all about Sharp. Do we want his salary though?
I say yes if he's Slava's replacement (and we decline to re-up him) and if all CHI can afford back is a draft pick and a couple of prospects. HOWEVER, I think Klingberg, Postma and perhaps even Morin should be off the table. They definitely need some blueline depth so how about this deal:
Thrash get: Sharp & Hjalmarsson ($4.767 M in salary)
Hawks get: Kulda, Valabik & our 1st round pick in 2010 (assuming this move is made closer to the deadline and we know we're playoffs bound)
It would also help to know that we have indeed signed Kovy as the amount of his deal combined with Sharp's salary of $4.1 M will certainly impact Little's, Kane's, Bogosian's and perhaps Finny's new deal. But getting Hjalmarsson might be good insurance against losing Kubina whom we couldn't afford unless we unloaded Hainsey to somebody else.
The biggest drawback of this possible scenario is the resentment it could potentially cause in the "room" if Sharp doesn't outperform Slava, Little and White and stay close to Peverley's point production pace.
I think giving up a 1st rounder is a little steep. 2nd rounder maybe.
I would only do the 1st rounder if we knew we were playoffs bound...I wouldn't want to give up a Top 15 pick. However, if we can't make the playoffs this year with the improvements AND Sharp, then we have bigger issues than losing a first rounder I think.
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