A source today has told me that the Caps losing Kozlov and Fedorov opens up a “serious” possibility. I asked who the Caps were interested in and he threw some pretty big names out there, one of whom would be via trade, one is a pending UFA that is still playing.

The player via trade was Ilya Kovalchuk. It is intriguing to consider an Ovechkin/Kovalchuk duo going up against the Crosby/Malkin combo for the next several years [source]

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Every Russian in the league to Washington e3

RichardPeterNuss said:

Hmm…imagine that, Eklund, WRONG again. The guy couldn't find his ass from a hole in the ground. We all bitch and piss and moan about this cocksucker, and his bitch sidekick,  Robemblind, but the truth is, until somebody hits this motherfucker where it hurts, IN COURT, in his POCKETBOOK, he will continue as usual, making shit up, swindling everyone and anyone who'll buy his shit. Robemblind 's time is coming very VERY shortly. There's a class action suit being prepared that should bankrupt that cunt. But until someone hits Dwight equally as hard, we'll for eternity have to listen to his braggart tales, incessantly whined at his gullible dumbfuck customers expense. Anyone stupid enough to actually follow that limpdick DESERVES the fucking over they get… Only in America can every constitutional law be not only abused, but used as a shield. That's the problem with the world today…THERE IS NO RECOURSE or CONSEQUENCES for one's actions…

 Always love you kick ass posts Peter, but its Dwayne, not Dwight! Minor I know, but I sure Dwayne Keith Klessel visits this site often.

Well, just a small quibble here…

Should this trade actually be consumated, what exactly would the Caps being giving up in return?  The price wouldn't be cheap.

Secondly, yeah Backstrom and Semin are up next summer but they're RFA so the Caps have some leverage unless Semin decides to go arbitration.  We don't believe Backstrom has that right yet.

Morrrissonnn is prime candidate to be moved this summer to make room for Alzner.   Schultz and Fehr may only get another season in Washington as well.  Nylander ($4.875 mill) will be bought out next summer ($3 mill due in 10-11 but that shrinks to about $1.25 mill under a buyout) if he doesn't retire before then and Theodore ($4.5 mill) will be gone as well at the time Kovalchuk's contract expires.  If space was needed, Clark could also be bought out of his final year too, but with much less savings.  Varlamov won't have arbitration rights either.

The math is tough, but doable.  It all hinges on what the Caps can get Semin to agree to and what happens with the the salary cap.  The Caps wouldn't be in a good position capwise but they could make it work.

But the math becomes a side issue to the fact that this kind of trade would never happen within a division.  Unless Rumor Boy has some sort of inside track on Atlanta relocating somewhere out west, there's no way they trade a player like Kovalchuk inside their own division.  They would have to be very stupid in order to even entertain the notion.

I think the best is that you only got a month for that one.  I figured that would be a lifetime, unless there is some truth to it. 

CaptainRIvet said:

I got banned twice within 3 weeks. I callied Ek a pedophile and got a month! What a douchebag, Im never giving you my 20 bucks

Clearly his readership numbers are struggling when you can call him a pedophile and only get a MONTH!  Too funny!!

As for the rumour, or any of his reported bullshit, I expect to hear about Kovalchuk heading to almost every team in the league as we get closer to the offseason.  It's the only way he's ever even close to being right.  Maximize the odds by attaching all 29 other teams to the player, and hope for the best.

I think it would be funny if he did that, and was still wrong because Kovalchuk opts for the KHL….