Snow's confirmation on contacting Kovalchuk's agent, even forced the NY Daily News to actually have Peter Botte write a July article on a baseball Saturday which is a bigger sidebar than Kovalchuk.
NYIFC Comments:
So CBC had more information than Cablevision-Newsday? No shock there.
Am I shocked the Islanders were the team in negotiations for Kovalchuk?
This may be hard to believe, but not at all.
A lot of reports out of nowhere surfaced the Islanders were interested in him before he was traded from Atlanta back in February and I remembered them. It was obvious they needed veteran scoring, and have the cap space.
Sadly, Cablevision/Newsday is too busy selling 100m-max contract signings to injured basketball players today with them even paying the insurance here the usual very negative Devil beatwriter, Mark Everson got in some digs at the New York Islanders.
Ilya Kovalchuk signing or not, Snow and the Islanders are getting their money's worth in pr (some not good) and it's great to see the former outspoken player, who is now the clubs general manager surface once in a while.
Doug Weight is also doing some recruiting for free agents.
Snow is right, the bench is the same in all thirty arena, unless Paul Martin is the backup goaltender, he's not going to the concession stands or sitting with the crowd during the game.
That's what he needed to say three years ago, he's learning.
What do I think about a possible ten million contract over ten years?
Under the condition, these terms were actually offered per legitimate NHL media, which Snow did not confirm.
It kind of changes the history of not winning lottery for him a decade ago, when Isles were favored, and set into motion what happened afterward because he likely would have gotten Alexei Yashin's contract back then at the time, and there never would have been a trade with that pick.
Lot of articles Mike Milbury was furious they lost that lottery for Kovalchuk and forced him to change plans entirely.
Signing Kovalchuk will help New York local hockey in terms of a Devil-New York rivalry, Lou Lamoriello will not be thrilled with having lost his biggest trade ever to a local team, future games will be circled in big bold letters from here on with Martin Brodeur starting every one of them.
Other Thoughts:
* That it may well be Charles Wang's last stand to get the old generation of Islander fans to pay attention to his hockey team, under his watch and fill the seats, with no local media help regardless of what happens on ice with or without Kovalchuk.
* The few Ranger fans in the limited print media will likely kill the signing regardless of whether it happens, that's not relevant.
* Ten years at ten million is the only way Charles Wang can pay him because it's too much money for him to lose yearly in a front-loaded contract, unless he wants to approach thirty million in losses next season.
* Mr Wang likely will not own the Islanders for another decade into his mid-late seventies, so it would not be his money paying him at the end of the contract.
* A star player can only increase teams value, and interest (locally) if the time comes he feels he has to sell.
* Don't think it makes a LH difference at all. Nassau/TOH have never proven themselves big New York Islander fans attending games or showing much pride in organization, win or lose. Wang after 2002 got a proclamation from Tom Suozzi, and was told they can not afford to do anything with the Coliseum.
* If Leetch, Holik and all those players can make nine million dollars a year almost a decade ago, to watch Yashin, Kvasha make the playoffs, why can't Ilya Kovalchuk make ten million again, almost a decade later?
* It will not improve the local coverage one bit, as we saw with Devils or Rangers, it's a baseball town packed with superstars already.
Bottom line, he's not costing them a first round pick, he will not cost them a potential franchise defender this time (that no one could keep in UFA) and there is no Bill Muckalt to lose.
If Kovalchuk wants to sign for ten million over ten years here, and it is an accurate offer, if the New York Islanders want to add him to a payroll below the cap floor, go for it.
If the Islanders cannot/will not sign him, no problem.
Use the money and move on to the next free agent. Now that they feel they need to address offense and are willing to spend, no turning back.
Funny how two teams supposedly ready to throw the franchise keys to the league are now making offers on Kovalchuk, and the one trying to keep him did not fill the seats with him in a new building even come playoff time, knowing well in advance they were making the playoffs.
We do love our infamous "sources" and their so-called claims, even the professional print media is using them more and more.
Nothing negative to write about the Los Angeles Kings, they have struggled for a good decade plus on the ice before finally improving last season.
I don't know what will happen, if he signs here good, if he signs elsewhere good luck to him.
I appreciate the New York Islanders trying (making inquiries) to bring in a franchise talent that cost them nothing on trade market.
Finally, I would like to apologize to my twitter followers for asking some tough but fair and mostly sports-related question of Newsday's Arthur Staple. My other questions were on reporting double-standards between teams covered in Newsday.
I was trying to get us some fair and reasonable answers, it was obviously a waste of our time and space on NYIFC twitter to do so.
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