The Question of Kovalchuk

There are only a handful of teams in the NHL that have the assets, budget or cap space to made a legitimate bid for Ilya Kovalchuk.  The Rangers certainly have the assets, at which point cap space becomes moot because they can clear enough room to sign the crafty Russian wing.  And budgetary concerns, obviously, have never been a real problem for this team.  So if Sather were so inclined, he could probably land Kovalchuk.  Regardless of the team's downward trend, players want to play in New York.  Kovalchuk is probably no different.

So the question becomes, should Sather make a run at Kovy?  I don't think there's any question the Don Waddell and his pals in Atlanta will want some combination of players involving Callahan, Dubinksy and Staal.  The Thrashers will want two of the three, if not all of them.  Waddell has to get a big return here - he failed (again) to sign a franchise player.  Two years ago, he was forced into trading Marian Hossa at the deadline to Pittsburgh, and before that, he couldn't keep Dany Heatley in Georgia (though his departure from the team had more to do with an off-ice incident).    Waddell never successfully built a team around his top talent - the best Thrashers squad to date, one that featured both Hossa and Kovalchuk, was handedly dispatched in the first round of the playoffs by Jagr & the Rangers.  It was Atlanta's only trip to the postseason in the history of the franchise.

To land Kovalchuk, the Rangers would have to give up the best talent the organization has developed in decades, home grown players that management and fans alike have come to see as the future of the team.  Is it worth it?  Hard to say.  Kovy is a world class talent.  He's a point-a-game player, and a game breaker.  It's pretty enticing to go after him when you consider the Rangers would wind up with two elite scorers, Gaborik and Kovalchuk, on the same team, possibly even the same line.  It's a combination that's brings to mind Datsyuk and Zetterberg, Toews and Kane and maybe if you really want to push it a little bit, Crosby and Malkin.  But are the ends worth the means?  Probably not.

Trading Staal, Dubinksy and/or Callahan would leave an already Rangers transparent team with even less depth (if you can imagine that).  The loss of Staal would basically leave the Blueshirts with a gaggle of incompetent defenseman and Michael Del Zotto.  The departue of Cally and/or Dubinksy would leave such  enormous holes in the powerplay/PK/depth/heart department, and no assets with which to fill them.  Also keep in mind that a tandem of elite goal scorers doesn't guarantee a deep playoff run, or any playoff run at all.  Atlanta couldn't get it done with Hossa and Kovalchuk, and the Red Wings, of all teams, are currently on the playoff bubble.  So landing a second sniper wouldn't necessarily solve the Rangers problems, the most glaring of which are the team's soft defesne and complete lack of secondary scoring. 

Still, Kovalchuk is so, so good.  It's a tough call.

If Sather were to make a deal that brough Kovalchuk to New York, it would be a departure from the teams "superstar and supporting cast" model that they built during the Jagr years, during which it was a pretty successful.  The 2007-2008 Rangers were pretty good, and the 2006-2007 squad was really good.  Good enough, in my opinion to gotten at least as far as the conference finals if they had been able to steal one more game from Buffalo at the Garden during the semifinals. 

Realistically, the one superstar paradigm is probably the best one for this organization.  Signing Kovalchuk long term, not as a rental, would be great for the team, but in the long run would prevent management from filling the gaps in the auxilliary spots - depth on the third and fourth lines and a more solid, puck moving defensive corps.  Depth and defense win championships.  Instead of going after Kovy, which would give the team even less options for getting a few of it's albatross contracts (Rosivzal, Redden & Drury) off the books, Sather should build around Gaborik, even if it means this year's playoff push will get particularly ugly and might not even end with a spot in the top 8.  The trade deadline is coming up, and free agency looms large in July.  There's talent out there to be signed that won't require the Rangers mortaging their future on the premise that one player will turn the franchise around.  If Gaborik can't carry this crew to the playoffs on his own, then no one, not even Kovalchuk, can do it.  The Rangers need depth in the long run more than they need goals in April.