New York Rangers in the Mix for Ilya Kovalchuk

Brian Burke's two trades on Sunday sure kicked things off in the hockey world as far as trade talks go. The biggest name on the market right now is Atlanta Thrashers star Ilya Kovalchuk, as it is now widely known that GM Don Waddell is shopping him but the asking price is sky high.

It has been rumored that in return for Kovalchuk, who will become a free agent come July 1, the Thrashers will be looking for a first round draft pick, two prospects, and two current NHLers. Sure, that is a great amount off assets being sent to a club for just one individual, but Kovalchuk is one of the top talents in the world.

A few weeks ago, I did a write-up on how difficult it would be for Glen Sather to be able to reel Kovalchuk into the Rangers organization (read here). However, the experienced general manager may be setting us up for a surprise, as TSN's Bob Mckenzie wrote the following in a tweet earlier this afternoon.

"Teams in mix for Kovalchuk include: Boston, New Jersey, Rangers, Philadelphia, Calgary, Chicago, and L.A. Some more. Some less. Auction time."

I fully expected Sather to put in an offer for the star winger, but I did not think the talks would go very far at all. In fact, I was speculating that it would be a give or take type offer, with no options thrown in by the Thrashers party. The fact that the Blueshirts find themselves in the final seven teams still in the mix this late in the process indicates that Sather's offer may have been a bit more meaningful than just give or take.

Before you go ahead and read this, please realize the following is all speculation on my part, and none of this has been confirmed.

On that note, I would say that Brandon Dubinsky is probably one of the players involved in the offer. He was included in the offer for Heatley over the summer, so why wouldn't Sather go right back to that again for Kovalchuk? It makes sense, but it also frightens me to think what else Slats has laid out on the table. As far as prospects go, he has to be smart and extremely cautious. We do not want a future star to slip out of our hands.

I will also go ahead and say that Sather may have at least attempted to work one of Redden or Rozsival into the deal as well. We have talked about it over and over again. One of these major salaries needs to be removed in order for the franchise to take a big step forward. Sather has made mistakes in his time, but he has also shown that he can find slick ways to fix them. Hopefully he can work his magic once again.

I would just like to mention one last thing. I know early on over the summer and last season the blog had many rumors up on it, but we have learned better ever since and the information such as the Rangers still being in on Kovalchuk is coming from legitimate sources such as TSN, Rangers beat writers, and other mainstream sources.

We will not be reporting any of the false garbage that comes from the Globe and Mail or any of those Canadian newspapers looking for attention. Rumors you read here can be trusted and are true nine out of ten times.

I just wanted to make that clear because in the coming weeks, you will hear hundreds of rumors, but this blog will only be reporting the ones that are true and from legitimate outlets.