February 11, 2009, Ilya Kovalchuk story for Yahoo! Sports
Thrashers say they won’t trade Kovalchuk
One of the NHL’s premier snipers sat semi-hunched over at his stall in the visiting team’s locker room at Madison Square Garden.
Ilya Kovalchuk was tired.
Despite a fairly vigorous early skate, the fatigue was not physical. It was mental; frustration owing to another season that can best be described as rigor mortis. In the homestretch of the 2008-09 campaign, the Thrashers are double-figure points behind the Eastern Conference’s eighth seed. All-time, Atlanta has only one playoff appearance to its name – a first-round sweep two years ago.
“It (hasn’t) been the best season in my career, but there (are) still a lot of games (remaining) so hopefully we can turn it around,” Ilya Kovalchuk said before a recent game. “We should think about how to turn it around. We are so far from the playoffs and there are a lot of games to go. We just need to hope to win every game.”
By any measure, this has not been a banner season for the organization and its marquee player. With 28 games remaining, it is a safe bet that the Thrashers will finish out of the playoffs for the eighth time in its nine years.
In the East, Atlanta’s 41 points has them in 14th place, ahead of only the moribund New York Islanders. Overall, the Thrashers are 29th of the league’s 30 franchises.
“We’re disappointed to be in the situation that we’re in, that’s for sure. We’re frustrated. In my 29 years of professional hockey as a player, coach and manager, this by far is my most frustrating year because we’re a better team than what our record is,” Thrashers general manager Don Waddell said. “We’ve proven that at times, but not enough. We’ve got games to play and our goal has to be to play for each other and play with some pride.”
Individually, Kovalchuk is 18th in the league in goals (22) and points (52), and tied for 23rd in the league in assists (30). His minus-17 rating has the first Russian to be selected No. 1 overall tied with teammates Vyacheslav Kozlov and Ron Hainsey, Ottawa’s Nick Foligno, the Coyotes’ Enver Lisin and the Wild’s James Sheppard’s for 815th in the league.
Unquestionably, those aren’t the names that should surround a player who has scored 40 or more goals four times, including two 52-goal seasons. It should be noted that Kovalchuk has scored 29 points in the last 29 games he’s appeared.
“My impressions were that he was one of the top five forwards in the world and nothing’s changed,” Thrashers’ first-year coach John Anderson said. “He still is. I think he’s not as scoring as good as he has in past years, but he is getting the chances.
“When you’re a goal-scorer you want to score 50 every year, and he has that capability,” he added. “It’s not like he’s starved for goals right now. But you’ve seen how he can go on a real good streak. We need him to go on a streak for our team. He has to be our leader. He has to be our No. 1 guy.”
The reality is that Atlanta does not have enough talent around Kovalchuk. Unlike years past, there is no Marc Savard or Dany Heatley or Marian Hossa to skate alongside No. 17.
And that brings up a question: In an effort to rebuild the franchise, would the Thrashers trade their captain?
There has been season-long speculation that Atlanta could deal Kovalchuk by the March 4 trade deadline. Certainly, any NHL team could not use a scorer in the prime of his career. And there are some teams – the Rangers and Penguins immediately come to mind – that could use him more than others.
In the right deal, Kovalchuk, who is under contract for another season, could bring back a treasure trove of young players and picks to an organization that two years ago mortgaged its future to reach the playoffs.
A trade is an intriguing idea. Save for fact that the Thrashers are not intrigued.
“Not a chance. It’s been a rumor; it’s been a bad rumor all year. We just made him captain here,” an adamant Waddell said. “Our plan is to keep this player and to continue to move forward with him. There’s no chance that we’ll trade him.
“It’s nice to have a marquee player in the league, that’s for sure. He’s been the face of the franchise since we drafted him. We want that to continue because we all know that fans gravitate to your best players and when you have a player that has been in how many All-Star Games and scored 50 goals the last few years, people in Atlanta certainly know who Ilya Kovalchuk is,” the GM added.
When asked whether he wants to be traded or would accept a deal, Kovalchuk was pragmatic.
“I like everything here and my family loves the city,” he said. “I don’t want to go anywhere. But it’s a business and we’ll see what happens.”
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=Annp.eTUN.rhj.9AQhSK2nd7vLYF?slug=ys-kovalchuk021009&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 10:16 AM
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