In a recent Foxsports.com column I wrote about what Atlanta Thrashers general manager Don Waddell needs to address this summer in order to return his club to playoff contention next season.
The Thrashers suffered a disappointing follow-up season to last year’s first-ever playoff appearance in franchise history, falling out of the playoff race after trading Marian Hossa in late February.
I suggested that Waddell’s job could be in jeopardy by this time next season if the team fails to improve, but it could have potentially more serious consequences than that.
Franchise player Ilya Kovalchuk is currently signed through to the end of the 2009-10 season, but if the Thrashers have any hopes of retaining him beyond then, they must make significant improvement next season.
Kovalchuk recently netted his 50th goal of the season, the second time in his career he’s done this, as well as making him only the second player this season to do so. Unfortunately this scarcely raised much attention with the hockey media more focused on playoff bound teams and the performances of Kovalchuk’s dazzling younger countrymen, Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin and Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin.
Kovalchuk has had difficulty garnering the respect of the hockey media in recent years. Last summer, despite a 42-goal performance, The Hockey News’ 2007-08 Yearbook ranked him 48 in their Top 50 Players heading into this season.
“There is no denying this guy’s offensive prowess”, the article said. “But he remains a one-dimensional player who has been unable to lead his team”.
That criticism seems unfairly harsh, given the lack of defensive depth on last season’s Thrashers, the lack of depth on Kovalchuk’s line and whispers of his clashing with former head coach Bob Hartley.
The magazine rated Kovalchuk lower than aging stars like Brendan Shanahan, Ryan Smyth and Dominik Hasek. It ranked him lower than players who’d slumped last season, like Scott Gomez, Zdeno Chara, Rick Nash, Jonathan Cheechoo, Eric Staal, and Patrik Elias.
It questioned his leadership when ranking Tomas Kaberle and Simon Gagne above him, both of whom he out-performed last season and whose abilities did little to get their respective teams into last year’s playoffs.
This season, on a clearly worse team, with teammates Marian Hossa and Slava Kozlov having poor performances compared to last season, Kovalchuk is on pace for the best goal-scoring performance of his career and second-best single season point total.
On a better team, Kovalchuk would not only perhaps contend for the Art Ross and Rocket Richard trophies this season, he’d probably garner the respect he deserves.
Instead, critics will again blame him for not carrying a weakened Thrashers team into the playoffs, question his leadership and his overall skills.
Kovalchuk is being well paid by the Thrashers, averaging $6.332 per season and he’ll earned $7.5 million per season over the next two years. He’s holding up his end of the deal, but frustration has to be setting in seeing his team decline only a year after finally making the playoffs.
It has to be frustrating to have his heart, ability and leadership questioned, to have his impressive offensive prowess so blithely dismissed and overlooked.
It has to wound his pride to be singled out for fault when the supporting cast gives him very little to work with, let alone lead.
The Thrashers must make substantial improvement next season, because another season of mediocrity could push Kovalchuk out the door by 2010, if not sooner, as surely as it pushed Hossa away.
1) With due respect to the blog author, with 2 additional seasons remaining on his deal it seems a bit premature to worry about any player 'departing'.
2) In the salary cap world 2+ years is an eternity. Also you didn't site any actual reports that Ilya IS upset with his being overlooked by the hockey world, or in his team's recent problems. He may be, but we have yet to read about it. (Unlike his team mate/Thrasher goalie, Lehtonen who DID call out his team mates' poor play) Perhaps Ilya enjoys the anonymity? Its not like he's getting under paid with 15 million to paid out the next 2 years after this one.
3) That said, its has to be troubling to both he, and more importantly Thrasher fans when the team owner basically comes out and give Don Waddell a vote of confidence recently. In our opinion Waddell is one of the more incompetent GM's in the NHL and the teams current plight can be directly tied to some of the questionable moves he's made the past few years. He should have been fired long ago!
Last edited by fauxrumors5 on March 25th at 7:44 AM.
Two years an eternity? I don't think so. The Thrashers will have legitimate reason to be concerned about Kovalchuk's status after next season if the team hasn't made significant improvement. As we've already seen (and will likely see again this summer) some teams don't wait for players eligible for UFA status in a year's time to re-sign them, but rather try to re-up them a year prior (Iginla and Thornton being two prime examples).
Kovalchuk is the Thrashers franchise player, the guy they're building around. If the team is wallowing again after next season, he's only got one more year remaining on his contract, with the knowledge of an even larger payday to come, many via offers from contending teams and those in bigger hockey markets.
Maybe Kovalchuk is that rarity like Jokinen who'll stay loyal to a struggling franchise, but seeing his competitive and at times scrappy nature, I have strong doubts he'll stay with a rudderless franchise like the Thrashers for long unless this team makes significant improvement over the next two years. Otherwise, as I noted, they'll be facing the same situation with Kovalchuk by the 2010 trade deadline as they faced this year with Hossa.
This is not something to be blithely dismissed as premature. Rather, it's a serious situation.
I totally agree with Spector. This franchise has been going in reverse this year. Expansion teams are suposed to stink and then eventually get good at some point. Look at the Sharks, the Lightning won a cup, the Sens were on top for a while, the Preds would still be strong if they didnt dump all the salary, the canes won a cup and have been better this year, the wild have a good team and lets not forget the Ducks.
The jackets seem to be catching on... so that leaves the Thrashers and the Panthers out. Having to worry about your best player is a big matter.
What if Iginla left Calgary? If Nabokov or Brodeur left their teams? If Alfredson left the Sens? They'd squeek into the playoffs and those are teams much better than Atlanta without their best player.
I dont know how long the thrashers have been around. But they've got little to show for how long they've been around.
I would add that the Panthers did make the Finals in '96, their 2nd season (losing to Colorado). However, I'd agree they're in reverse as well.
As for the Thrash and the Blue Jackets....
I'm not so quick to believe that the Blue Jackets have "caught on" 8 losing season's now, 8 years out of the playoffs. In a league where 16 of the 30 teams get in, that's just pathetic. Such is also the case with the Thrashers, before last year.
But at least Kovalchuk seems to be getting paid for his production $7.5M/yr is on the higher end of salaries these days. But I agree, if he gets on a better team, he would help them more than he could possibly help a Thrashers teams that's going in reverse.
1) The key difference between the Thrashers and Jackets: Columbus relieved their incompetent GM(McClean) and Atlanta continues to allow Waddell to be employed/ruin the chances this franchise survives(again)in Atlanta!
The 'Canes won the cup 26 years after they joined the NHL... they'd already been existence 7 years before that... I'd hardly put them in the same category as the Thrashers or Panthers, even if they were consistently pretty #### until very recently...
For the Canes my point is that they've got a group of players who're worth holding on to. The Thrashers have a few.
When you think of the Thrashers you think of one guy for the most part, but when you think of what's getting the Canes into the playoffs this year... well at least when I think of what's getting the Canes into the playoffs half a dozen guys come to mind.
Another franchise that seems to be perpetually rebuilding. With a weak defensive corps, a lack of a true number one center, a goaltender with a lot of to prove...etc, Kovalchuk and the Thrashers will be in for another disappointing 2009 season.
of course, there's still the offseason to make improvements and Lehtenon (I cannot spell Finnish names to save my life) could play up to his potential next year.
Last edited by thecatch22 on March 26th at 2:50 AM.
Dispite all the #### that the Trashers have gone through.. it doesn't measure up to my Oilers. Haven't won a cup in... jeez we're getting closer and closer to 20 years. We've been to the finals... lost the farm... and things are looking good, but I think it's amazing how the Oilers have drafted horribly since then. Even Detroit can pull diamonds out of the rough in the later rounds and we ALWAYS get to pick before them. Frustrating as hell.
Daniel Carcillo has 308PIM. 5.9PIM per game(Both 1st in the NHL)
Phoenix Coyotes have 1076PIM.
Jared Boll has 209 PIM(2nd) 3.0PIM per game(9th)
Columbus Blue Jackets have 1135PIM.
Carcillo has been given 28.624% of his team's penalty minutes... is that a record? That's insane! Boll has 18.414% of team's penalty minutes and he's 2nd in the league.
Sorry Spector but he is a one dimensional player. Ovechkin HAS carried his team into contention and would be at the top of the conference if his teammates hadn't quit on Hanlon to the tune of 6-14. And he's now a plus 24 player who's blocking shots in the last minute of games and playing much more physical than his wannabe Kovalchuk.
With all due respect to FauxRumours5, Chris Pronger had four more years on his deal in Edmonton, and that didn't stop him from putting the gun to Kevin Lowe's head for a trade. Other players have done similar things in the past. I don't think it's unreasonable conjecture on Lyle's part of muse about Kovalchuk situation, that Ilya might either prompt a trade or play out the free agent string and look for greener pastures.
In the salary cap world, two years is an eternity and a heartbeat. You've got to take in both the long view and the short view, without exclusively focusing on either.
Key questions: If you're Atlanta, can you afford Kovalchuk two years down the road when he might be asking for $10 million a season? Can you afford NOT to sign him? Do you have anybody developing in the pipeline to replace him? If you're having trouble negotiation a deal, can you risk having him walk away for nothing?
If you elect that you'll need to swap Kovalchuk, do you hold on to him as a deadline rental in the 2010 run to the playoffs? Do you pull the trigger earlier to maximize value? Who have you got for trading partners, teams that have the cap room to bring on a player like Kovalchuk? That's a lot of salary to move, and you've going to be taking some back. Who has the right mix of players at the right price range to make a swap viable?
Thrashers have to get him on a contract extension, and the sooner the better. Unless they're planning on picking up an amazing player or three in the draft this year, ready for the NHL today, their talent pool is getting awfully shallow. They should get rid of Don Waddell, find a suitable GM who will get Kovalchuk on a long-term extension (maybe with a NTC after 2010), find him a center, keep the goaltenders under contract, and maybe trade for or sign a top defenseman.
Elias was #11 or #12 on The Hockey News' top 50 and I dont even think he played the entire year. They said their ratings were based on mostly last years performance, which makes no sense when you see Elias and countless others above Kovalchuk. Their top 50 is usually garbage anyway.
2 years in the salary cap world isn't that long really. If the Thrashers have any intentions of keeping Kovalchuk happy they need to sign him up to a new contract at the start of the last season of his present contract. If not other interested teams start mentioning bigger money which would put a bitter taste in Kovalchuks mouth if the Thrashers dont already have an offer on the table.
As soon as the Stanley Cup was over the Penguins signed Malkin to a big contract 1 yr before he would be a free agent. The same for Crosby, Staal and for Fleury. Granted the Penguins and Thrashers don't share much in common.
If a trade was in the works that is a lot of salary to move into another teams cap but a similar thing happened with Hossa. Kovalchuk probably couldn't help but see how that deal worked out.
Its interesting that trade rumors are going this early in the year. Things could get entertaining.
Last edited by Kuma007 on November 5th at 6:14 AM.
I'm Lyle Richardson, also known as Spector, Foxsports.com 's "Prince of Pucks".,which is based on the fact I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada and I couldn't think of a better byline. I've been an NHL hockey commentator since 1998 on my website, Spector's Hockey, and I'm a contributing writer for Foxsports.com , The Hockey News and Eishockey News. I'm also a regular on The Faceoff Hockey Show and a frequent guest on "The Late Crew" on The Team 1200 Ottawa.
