Atlanta's mission: Don't allow Kovalchuk to Thrash and dash
It was late in the second period when the Atlanta Thrashers were trailing by three goals and looking about as effective as Tiger Woods' crisis management efforts have been of late.
Cue captain Ilya Kovalchuk.
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| Ilya Kovalchuk: Should he stay or should he go? (US Presswire) |
Ultimately, the Thrashers ended up losing 4-3 when the Florida Panthers scored with just over a minute left. It seemed like a bit of karmic payback for Atlanta getting the winner against the same team with only five seconds remaining a couple of weeks earlier, and it cost the visitors a chance to take over the East's fifth seed.
Still, the fact that Kovalchuk had single-handedly willed the Thrashers into a chance for gaining at least a point -- on a night they clearly didn't deserve it -- was not lost on his teammates.
"He's the leader on this team and we try to follow him," Vyacheslav Kozlov said. "That's why he's our franchise player."
Therein lies the rub. Kovalchuk is nothing if not the face of a franchise, a distinction he has had since being drafted first overall by Atlanta in 2001. He's been everything the organization could ask for, an exciting, durable and consistently productive player who has gone about his business in a consummately professional manner.
More important -- and unlike star players Marian Hossa and Dany Heatley, who forced their way out of Atlanta -- Kovalchuk has always insisted he likes being there and wants to stay.
He just won't commit to it. And that makes the next couple of months more critical than most to the future of an organization that has so far failed to entrench itself in a non-traditional hockey market. Aside from being in the prime of his career at age 26 with five 40-goal seasons already to his credit, Kovalchuk is in the final year of his contract and set to become an unrestricted free agent in July.
Given his elite status, he is due a financial windfall. The only issue is where it will come from.
Kovalchuk has made no secret of the fact that he wants to play on a winner, a term that has been hard to associate with the Thrashers, considering they've made the playoffs only once in their 10-year history and were swept out in the first round that time. But general manager Don Waddell, whose future likely depends on keeping Kovalchuk in the fold, has taken several steps in the last couple of seasons to convince his best player that the team is on the right track.
A number of recent draft picks such as defensemen Zach Bogosian and Tobias Enstrom and forward Evander Kane have quickly made impacts, while veteran additions Pavel Kubina, Maxim Afinogenov and Nik Antropov have helped turn Atlanta into a legitimate playoff contender this season. And the goaltending Atlanta is getting this season from the tandem of Ondrej Pavelec and Johan Hedberg is the best in franchise history.
Yet nothing has encouraged Kovalchuk to sign on the dotted line. And that is creating a serious dilemma for Waddell, who will have to decide in the next month or so whether to continue his efforts to sign Kovalchuk or accept the need to trade him, rather than risk losing him for nothing next summer.
If Waddell chooses the trade route, he'll have to take it well before the March deadline, when those in his position are generally forced to make deals with the proverbial gun to their heads. Problem is, trading away the superstar will undermine the progress Atlanta has made this season and, in the minds of many, spell the ultimate doom of the team in its present location.
"Obviously I have to keep all my options open," Waddell said recently. "But our goal is to sign Ilya to a long-term deal."
The big issue is what that will take. Kovalchuk is thought to be looking for a maximum salary, which is 20 percent of the current $56 million salary cap, or just over $11 million per season. That's a big hit for a team that has had ownership issues and usually draws more flies than fans to its home games, especially when you factor in the kind of money the Thrashers will require over the next few seasons to hang on to some of the good young talent it has.
Complicating matters are rumors emanating from Russia, where KHL officials are preparing to offer the sun and moon in an effort to legitimize the upstart league by repatriating one of that country's biggest names. Not that any of it seems to concern Kovalchuk much at the moment.
"It's just business," Kovalchuk said in an interview. "I'm not the first guy who is like this, but I'm under contract now so I have to play like I always play.
"I definitely want to stay here, but you never know what will happen. All I know is my agent and Don are talking a lot and trying to figure out a good deal for both sides."
Just don't expect it to involve the kind of "hometown" discounts that Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin took from Pittsburgh to help make it easier for the Penguins to keep much of their talented roster together.
"I believe in my heart that Ilya wants to stay here," Atlanta coach John Anderson said. "He loves the city and wants to make a difference on this team and I think he thinks we're moving in the right direction.
"But there's only so much you can do."
