What The Future Holds For Ilya Kovalchuk

   It has been a very exciting decade for Ilya Kovalchuk, to say the least. Six straight seasons with over forty goals and seventy five points, he is arguably the best goal scorer next to Alexander Ovechkin. However, a time has come where we actually might not see the Russian sniper in the National Hockey League come October, or will we?

       Kovalchuk's resume speaks serious talent and promise to many if not every team in the NHL (National Hockey League). What team wouldn't want a legitimate forty to close to fifty plus goal scorer on their team? Kovalchuk is officially on the market and is available to all thirty teams in the league come July 1st, 2010. There is no secret that the twenty-seven year old sharp shooter is the biggest name on the free agent market this year and without doubt that the majority of thirty teams will be interested in picking him up. However, the majority of these thirty teams might turn their heads around and look else-where if the Olympian continues to refuse to lower the asking price. Ilya Kovalchuk has expressed freely that he wants ten million dollars or more in order to sign a new contract with any of the thirty teams in the NHL (National Hockey League). That might be a problem. The last player to receive ten million dollars in a contract was veteran Mats Sundin when he signed with the Vancouver Canucks in 2008. However, Sundin only signed for the remainder of the season so it wouldn't be a huge issue for Vancouver in terms of Financial problems. But Kovalchuk's asking price isn't even as much number of age differential between Ilya, & Mats is. It's OK to offer a thirty seven (now thirty nine) year old ten million dollars because you know it won't be a long term deal that will come back to haunt you. However, Kovalchuk is only twenty seven and has years ahead of him, & unless he wants a one year contract, I'm not so sure that any team in the league will agree to what Kovalchuk is proposing. The only team I could see maybe agreeing to this deal is Carolina who has thirteen million dollars in cap space, or Dallas who have ten million dollars plus free, and that's excluding Marty Turco's contract, who the Stars publicly expressed they won't be re-signing, and Mike Modano's contract, who is likely to retire at the end of the season, which gives Dallas extra space to sign a player like Kovalchuk. But I still stand by my point, I'm not so sure Kovalchuk has earned a ten million dollar contract. Alexander Ovechkin is the best player in the world and averages over fifty goals a season and is making nine million dollars for the next twelve years. Unless Kovalchuk can convince a general manager that he can score fifty five plus goals & one hundred plus points for the next five seasons or so, OR if Kovalchuk is convinced that he needs to lower the asking price say to six, seven, or eight million dollars, then I don't think we will be seeing Ilya Kovalchuk in the NHL (National Hockey League) next season. But despite all this controversy, there is no doubt that come July 1st, 2010, all eyes will be on Ilya.