Ilya Kovalchuk Not Headed to Kings, but New Jersey Instead

Over the past weeks Kings fans have been hopeful, and Coyotes fans nervous, that Ilya Kovalchuk would be headed west to help Los Angeles stay in the midst of the Playoff race. With promising young players coming through and creating a contender, LA was looking for one big piece to put them over the top. That however will not happen yet as Ilya Kovalchuk was traded to the New Jersey Devils along with Anssi Salmela for defenceman Johnny Oduya, rookie forward Niclas Bergfors, prospect Patrice Cormier and a first-round draft pick.

Seems like an awful lot to me for someone that is only locked up through the end of the season and hasn't given any indication as to where he could possibly go. If Ice Edge can seal the deal here they've siad they'd go after big pieces if available. They were quoted as saying that if they had gotten control of the team this summer they would have been in on the Dany Heatley sweepstakes too. Is it possible that they would add a guy that's looking for a max deal from someone though?

I say we get Ilya Bryzgalov to put his locker right next to Kovy's in Vancouver during the olympics to talk up everything good about Phoenix. Maybe somehow we convince him to take a deal here? Hmmm??

Links to the teams doing the deal: In Lou We Trust (Devils) and Birdwatchers Anonymous (Thrashers)

The Moving Pieces:

To New Jersey

To Atlanta

Patrice Cormier of flying elbow to injure fame and New Jersey's first round pick which looks to be a late one.