Koval-Choke

Courtesy OilersNation.com

Trading for Ilya Kovalchuk was bad enough for the New Jersey Devils.

Going through the long, LONG process of re-signing him--twice--was even worse.  

Now the New Jersey Devils go into their 11th game of the season only winning twice.  One of the most stark statistics you'll ever see come out of New Jersey may not be the fact that they only have two wins...it's that they have a goal differential of -18.

Yeah, this is the team with gifted goal scorers Jamie Langenbrunner, Zach Parise, Travis Zajac, and did we mention they have the one, the only Martin Brodeur in net?  Oh, did we forget a guy named Ilya Kovalchuk, perennial 40-50 goal scorer?

In his tenure as a Devil, he had 10 goals and 17 assists in 27 games to get to the playoffs to lose to the Flyers in the first round.  In that playoff series, Kovalchuk added 2 goals, 4 assists, and one of those goals was an empty netter.  This year, he has 3 goals and 3 assists for 6 points in 9 games.  He was scratched against Buffalo because he was reportedly late to a team meeting, and John MacLean saw it fit to punish him like so.

Drama, drama, drama.

What do we take out of this, then?  I'll say it bluntly: Lou Lamoriello's decision to trade for Kovalchuk was the only mistake he made.  If he didn't trade for him, the team would have been so much better off.

If you look at the Devils' history, you know for a fact that they have always been more of a defensive minded club with the stellar goaltending of a living legend.  That's what got them their Stanley Cup championships, after all.  And the Devils were on a good roll throughout the year.  But once the Devils traded prospect Niclas Bergfors, Johnny Oduya, Patrice Cormier and a first round pick, it was all downhill from there.  After the contract debacle, turns out it was more than one draft pick.  Regardless, that's a steep price to pay for Mr. Kovalchuk.

It would have been all for naught if they couldn't re-sign the pending UFA, so they did: to 17 years.  But the NHL finally caught wind of too many long-term contracts and shut it down with authority.  After almost a MONTH of deliberations and distractions, Kovalchuk was locked up for 15 years.  I'm going to be 35 years old when he's done his contract.  That's hard to believe in itself.  

Regardless, the Devils don't need Kovalchuk.  That's a point I think every hockey fan can agree on.  Not only does he tie up tons of cap space, but he ties up a ton of attention for all the wrong reasons.  On the powerplay, you know he's going to get a lot of passes for one-time shots.  What did the Flyers do in their playoff series?  Case in point.  They already have goal scoring sources, and they could have done more than get Henrik Tallinder and Anton Volchenkov.  They could have re-signed Paul Martin with the money they didn't spend on Kovalchuk.  They could have made their unknown defense a bit more...known.

Kovalchuk and the Devils also don't mix, philosophically.  He's not a defensive player.  He's already -4.  He's going to put points on the board, but only if he lets his speed and shot do the work for him.  Ovechkin and the Caps work philosophically because they are a quick team.  Crosby and the Penguins work.  Richards and the Flyers.  Getzlaf and the Ducks.  You get where I'm going.  Kovalchuk was a FORCED addition, and one the Devils, as much as their players laud him, didn't need.

They could be at least .500 at this point without him.  He's a distraction, and he's going to be forced to be in Newark for the next 15 years.

I'm so sorry, Mr. Kovalchuk.