With the free agent frenzy just around the corner, Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke has said on numerous occasions that he’s not interested in joining the Ilya Kovalchuk sweepstakes.
But I’m not buying it.
Why not? For one, what GMs say before they act rarely coincides with what they do, and two, adding this guy just makes too much sense.
Granted, Kovalchuk’s rejection of a $10 million contract from Atlanta just before he got shipped off to New Jersey would make any GM in this age of the salary cap quake in his power suit.
But that’s just the point—no one is going to give Kovalchuk that much money.
That said, there’s no reason a team couldn’t snag maybe the greatest young sniper ever to hit the unrestricted free agent market for $8-9 million per season and a Marian Hossa-like long, back-loaded contract that might take the heat off the cap hit at least somewhat.
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Article written by mark anderson