New Jersey Devils Acquire Ilya Kovalchuk

Not much to say about this, except let’s get right to the details.

What the Devils Gave Up

Johnny Oduya : 40 gp: 2-2-4 +2 18PIM 0 pp goals. He will be missed, but he is not irreplaceable.

Niclas Bergfors : 54 gp: 13-14-27 -7 10PIM 8 pp goals. He started out great, but has slowed down drastically. As with Oduya, he is not irreplaceable.  

Patrice Cormier : We all saw that hit—except for Thrashers GM Don Waddell, apparently. Cormier may be a good player one day, but those elbows might keep him from ever playing long enough for anyone to find out. Still, not a bad risk/reward move.

First-round pick in 2010

What the Devils Acquired

Ilya Kovalchuk: 49 gp: 31-27-58 +1 45PIM 10 pp goals. He’s Ilya Kovalchuk!

Anssi Salmela: 29 gp: 1-4-5 +4 22PIM 0 pp goals. Devils GM Lou Lamoriello brings back the player he traded away for that other defenseman whose name he won’t mention.

The teams also swap second-round picks in 2010.  

You can watch Don Waddell speak about the trade here: http://thrashers.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=656&id=59369

The announcement from the Devils can be found here: http://devils.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=516303&navid=DL|NJD|home

Now, how is this a bad deal? There are lots of people—lots of Devils fans—who are annoyed, angry even, that the Devils made this trade. These people, I’m assuming, have never seen Kovalchuk play—kinda like anyone who lives in Atlanta.

Kovalchuk immediately becomes the top scorer on the Devils with 58 points. Zach Parise has 57. Another fun fact about the newest Devil: Since the Thrashers drafted him No. 1 overall in '01, he leads the NHL with 328 goals. Pretty nice, huh?

Yes, he may be (likely) just a rental. But if someone told you that you had to give up a few nice things—nothing of too much value—to get something you’ve really been working hard for, wouldn’t you do it? I would, and Lamoriello just did.

Sit back and enjoy Kovalchuk, even if it’s just for a few months. We may send him off to free agency with a nice little parade.