Is Ilya Kovalchuk Worth the Price?

July 12th, 2010 by Kevin Freiheit Leave a reply »
As we sit here waiting for the Ilya Kovalchuk sweepstakes to end, the rumors continue to circulate around the NHL. Once he is signed, the dominoes are expected to begin falling. Teams will be trading and signing free agents again, filling up rosters with any unused cap space.

For now, general managers are sitting still waiting for someone to sign the Russian forward. How much is Kovalchuk actually worth?

Signing a long term contract is a huge risk for any team. The Islanders singed Rick DiPietro to a 15-year contract, but we have yet to see that pay off. DiPietro has started 12 games in the past two years, but still has plenty of time to live up to his deal.

Being the first overall pick in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft immediately brought high expectations for DiPietro. Then, signing a ridiculous long-term contract brightened the spotlight.

One year later, in 2001, Kovalchuk was selected with the No. 1 overall pick by the Atlanta Thrashers. His statistics were quite impressive as he put up 51 points in his rookie season. Since then, he has collected at least 67 points in each of his last seven seasons.

His best seas ...

Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
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