Does Kovalchuk Belong in a Devils Uniform?

I’m sure this question will come up over and over – hopefully not after every loss.

I’m a little confused though, Bergfors putting up 6 goals and 2 assists in his last 12 games is good. So what does that make Ilya Kovalchuk’s 5 goals and 7 assists in his last 13 (last night was the 13th game)?

Devils were faltering with Oduya and Bergfors. Nick was a hot cold player. In the beginning he was on fire and he got fatigued and fell through in the late times. Oduya was just a disappointment… Give the guy a brand new contract comming off an excellent season and he plays like he did. You never know with Cormier… He could be a 3rd line center or 2nd. Pending on what Atlanta does with him… The 1st round pick will probably be from picks 23-30… With Kovalchuk we got Salmela… To me watching the recaps on NHL on the Fly Salmela looks a lot better then Oduya right now.
I think this was a great deal for the Devils and don’t even know why your questioning it… You would think Lou would resign him no matter what giving of what he had to give up to get Kovy in the first place…

I think the return of Martin will help offset those that believe Oduya should have never been traded away. The fact of the matter is Oduya really was not having a good year and who knows if he would have continued his sub-par play into the post season, but also years after this one? I think Oduya was more replaceable than some people are making him out to be. I was a fan of him when he was a Devil but thought he got slightly overpaid for his talent level over the summertime. I’m looking forward to seeing how Martin evens out the defensive end, as he will ultimately be a crucial addition in what most of us regard as our weakest link right now: the defensive end of the ice.

I was a big fan of Bergfors when he was with the Devils. He showed a ton of potential and had some huge goals, as well as very memorable ones (anyone remember that goal against Philly at the Rock when he slipped through two defenders and scored?). That being said, Bergfors was definitely hitting a wall and was slumping just as hard as anyone else on the team. It was clear Lemaire was losing confidence and patience with him by dropping him down the lines before the trade.

I don’t think the New Jersey Devils system of playing hockey is an easy one to learn. I think it requires a much higher standard of accountability and discipline, one in which Kovy was not required to have in an Atlanta uniform. While I don’t necessarily think Kovy will be back next year, it’s still widely uncertain and in my eyes completely dependent upon how well the Devils do for the remainder of the season and beyond. But in regards to your question of whether Kovy belongs in a Devils uniform, I think he belongs in one just as much as Mogilny did and both of them were/are the best in the business at doing what they were brought in to do: scoring goals and drawing the attention of the opposition.

Giving up Oduya was absolutley the right thing to do lucky we found a team willing to take on that new fairly long deal for the way Oduya played this year and we got a world class player in place of freeing up what about 3.5 mil for the next 4 years had this deal not been made everyone would be complaining that Oduya is not worth his contract just like Zubrus and Rolston everyone is counting the days for those contracts to be up and i believe the same would be thought of Oduyas for the next 4 year Bergfors disappeared after a hot start im not always a fan of dumping a player bc they cooled off for a while but to get Kovalchuk for Bergfors and dumping Oduyas deal absolutley no doubts worth it!!

also Kovy thus far has averaged a point a game for us imagine what our offense would look like with out his production and i dont think he has even shown 80% of his abilities yet once he fully settles in and learns his linemates tendencies he will be even more productive and explosive

Have you seen his shot in NHL10? Makes playing with the Devils much more enjoyable :)

On a serious note though, I don’t think we lost that much defense. Sure, Oduya was a fan favourite-ish, but we’ve seen him pull a Mottau every now and then on defense, and we know what that’s like.

The BIGGEST positive I see, are the Devils offensive lines. I don’t remember the Devils ever having the offensive firepower that they have now. The Devils now have atleast three legitimate scoring lines, and the fourth line is still pretty damn good with Pando/Dean/(fill-in-the-blank). As Zajac said, the Devils probably have the best top three lines in the league, and it sure as hell would be a disappointment to see it all go to waste this season.

Kovalchuk has the unusual qualities of being UNRESTRICTED, YOUNG and a SUPERSTAR. He is a legit goal scoring threat every second he is on the ice.

If we can resign him to a reasonable contract (by reasonable I mean 9 mil a year) we should consider it, but we need to be able to sign Parise also and he has a big pay day coming.

If the Penguins can afford Crosby and Malkin and still have several other star quality players and compete for and win a cup, we should be able to do the same with Kovalchuk and Parise.

OVERPAYING for the likes of Zubrus/Rolston/White/Pandolfo are more the issue then signing kovachuk for what he is worth. White and Pandolfo could never get the money they are now recieving if they were UFA. Zubrus and Rolston are productive, but still overpaid.

The value of PARISE/KOVALCHUK type players beyond the obvious of winning and scoring points is they are a draw for the fans and sell tickets, which is so important to our franchise. We should be selling out at least half our home games, as teams with worse records continue to sell more tickets then us.

There are a few different arguments/points here that I want to speak about:

1. The Devils were not playing well before they traded for Kovalchuck. They had just been shut out by Toronto and were not generating enough 2nd line offense. They had been struggling throughout January.

2. There has been some bad defense recently, but trading Oduya in a deal for Kovy is a no brainer. Oduya had been OK this year and in the current NHL economy Oduya is not worth 3.5MM a year. Not when Martin Zidlicky is getting $4MM a year.

3. Oduya is far from a great offensive defenseman. He is a servicable second pairing guy who will occassionally get some points. His money coming off the cap next will be beneficial (especially if the overall cap number drops) as that money can be distributed to Clarkson’s raise, other RFA raises and a little bit towards Martin if necessary.

4. Bergfors has potential, but I don’t want to pay him a any raise as an RFA for his goals that were a result of Parise or someone elses hard work. He will probably be a high 20’s scorer in his career, but he needs others to be good around him, he didn’t seem to make others better.

5. As far as Kovalchuk’s D, I think he is improving and I love his team focus. I had thought he would be a selfish player, but he seems to be fitting in well with the team in the little instances I have noticed. As an example after the Penguins game last Friday, Parise skated right up to him on the ice to hug him. Seeing things like that are huge in my view. As far as his teams not doing well in Atlanta, I have a feeling he will excel the most (either here or somewhere else) where he can be the second fiddle, and since this is Zach’s team this setup works well for him.