 | Kings will meet with Ilya Kovalchuk on Monday |
Ilya Kovalchuk will meet with Kings executives for the first time Monday, a chance for the Kings to sell him on the merits of living and playing here — and on compromising at the bargaining table.
Kovalchuk's arrival in Los Angeles on Sunday added a new twist to a saga that began when the NHL's free-agent period opened on July 1. The Kings had two previous rounds of talks with his agent, Jay Grossman, but walked away each time after Grossman refused to relax his client's 10-year, $100-million price.
However, with few apparent alternatives for the 27-year-old left wing besides returning home to play in Russia's KHL, Kovalchuk agreed to hear another pitch from the Kings, this time in person.
General Manager Dean Lombardi denied he had forged a deal with the two-time 50-goal scorer after Daren Millard of Sportsnet said via Twitter on Sunday afternoon that "Kovy-gate comes 2 an end tomorrow. Kings win the process." Lombardi said the sides weren't close.
"He is coming for a visit," Lombardi said. "This is a great opportunity for him to meet us and for us to meet him. Reports of us signing him are utterly false."
Sitting in the same room and looking each other in the eye could clear the path to common ground.
The Kings' two reported offers to Kovalchuk were $63 million over 12 years — a salary cap hit of $5.25 million per season — and $84.5 million over 13 years, a cap hit of $6.5 million. They were reluctant to go much higher because they need cap space to keep core players, re-sign Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson, who can become restricted free agents next summer, and to add the support players they need to become Stanley Cup contenders.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-kings-kovalchuk-20100712,0,2776654.story
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| "Kings will meet with Ilya Kovalchuk on Monday" | Login/Create an Account | 22 comments |
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Re: Kings will meet with Ilya Kovalchuk on Monday (Score: 1)
by hockey_lover on Monday, July 12
(User Info | Send a Message) | I gotta say ... Kovy is likely one of the greediest players around.
For a guy who is considers (obviously) himself an elite player ... in 8 seasons, he has only hit 50 goals twice and never hit 100pts ... yet he wants more money per season than many players WAY better than him are making.
Ovechkin, Crosby, Malkin to name 3. Christ, even Heatley has better numbers in recent seasons. Gaborik, despite his injury problems, put up an extra point than him as well.
Its asinine.
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Re: Kings will meet with Ilya Kovalchuk on Monday (Score: 1)
by Kramer on Monday, July 12
(User Info | Send a Message) | Kovie's got many things to think about. The biggest is to choose a place that will keep him safe from aliens and where women and tasty food are aplenty. The food in Russia is horrible so there's no way he'd play in the HKL. The women are fast but they're the same in LA so that's a wash. Alien kidnappings are common in Russia. The KGB has been on alert, but they can't do much cause of budget cutbacks. Then he's got to avoid the Russian mafia who are hungry for kickbacks.
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Re: Kings will meet with Ilya Kovalchuk on Monday (Score: 1)
by nordiques100 on Tuesday, July 13
(User Info | Send a Message) | With the way he is jerking around two teams, possibly refusing big, but cap friendly deals, its just getting tiresome.
me thinks he wants his average salary to be between Ovechkin's and Malkin's.
Ovey makes 9.5 per, Malkin 8.7 per.
its perception and he wants the acknowledgment of being paid with all the other great players in the NHL.
its not enough for him to know he'd probably make an average of 12 mil per over the next 5 seasons. He wants to be right up in the top 5 when the rankings come out on who makes the highest average salary.
A cap hit of like say 5 mil would put him under Tomas Plekanec for example in terms of average salary. He assumes he is better so he wants to be higher than Pleks.
that is the kind of perception he is giving off with all this hoopla. he's a prima donna.
I am just waiting for the Rangers brass to give Slats the green light to bury Roszival and Redden in the minors and grab Kovalchuk.
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Re: Kings will meet with Ilya Kovalchuk on Monday (Score: 1)
by leafy on Tuesday, July 13
(User Info | Send a Message) |
Sad day. George Steinbrenner has died at age 80. R.I.P.
P.S. I heard George and Kramer are going to the funeral. Calzones are being served afterwards. |
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