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Rumor: Ilya Kovalchuk will be signing a 2-3 year deal with NYR

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haohmaru said:
Who's not ready in our top 6/9?

Kreider / Zibs / Fast
Zucc / Hayes / Spooner (Namestnikov)
Vesey / Andersson / Chytil (?)

Who are you putting on the fourth line to play Kovalchuk at 6 or 9?

Again, no thanks. It makes ZERO sense. I'd rather see the guys above play in expanded roles than bring in an aging Russian stop-gap/bridge for a couple of years.

Like I said, too, I get the other side of this. I'm not into it.
Click to expand...

To echo what some other people have said. Some combination of Zucc/Spooner/Namestnikov/Vesey may not be here after the draft. In addition, what if Andersson or Chytil have regular rookie season struggles? Wouldn't be unheard of for rookies to struggle and sometimes needing to take a step back.

If you're not into it, that's fine. But there is value to having Kovy, even you see that. The scenario you outlined is if none of those players are traded and Andersson/Chytil don't struggle.
 
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Kreider-Zib-Buch
Spooner/Names-Hayes(?)-Fast
Andersson-Chytil-???

That’s some sort of format for what I expect the top-9 to resemble come September.

To me, Kovy slots in there nicely.
 
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GAGLine said:
So, If I were to sum up these concerns, the overall theme here is that because of these reasons, Kovy might suck.

That is 100% true. He might suck. But you know what? Who cares? We don't need him to be good. It's a bonus if he is, but it isn't required. This team is not winning the cup in the next 2 years. They'll be lucky if they make the playoffs. Kovy playing well or poorly won't move the needle much in either direction.

His value to the team will be in filling a role the kids aren't ready to fill. Putting kids in positions they aren't ready for is a good way to ruin them. If he plays well, great. Maybe the team won't be a complete dumpster fire and we can trade Kovy down the road for more assets. In the meantime, signing him for free allows us to trade other players for more assets without completely gutting the team.



Other players are going to be traded. Gorton isn't done. It's very likely that Zucc will be traded. It's likely that at least one of Spooner/Namestnikov will be traded. Kovy's cap hit won't stop Gorton from making other moves.



I'm not sure that's true, but when has an NTC ever stopped us from trading someone? We signed Kotalik to a 3 year deal in 2009. He had a limited NTC with Calgary as one of the teams he wouldn't accept a trade to. We trade him to Calgary after 45 games.



As I said above, you want vets to insulate the kids so you aren't putting them in positions they aren't ready for. We want this team to be somewhat competitive. They don't need to make the playoffs, but being completely out of it by Halloween would be bad. We don't want to create a losing environment. We've seen how that plays out with other teams like Edmonton and Buffalo.

There's a huge, huge difference between signing Redden to a 6 year deal and expecting him to be a top pair dman on a winning team, and signing Kovy to a 2 year deal in the middle of a rebuild. There are no expectations that Kovy has to live up to. If he's good, great. If he sucks, so what. As long as he enables us to play the kids in their proper roles, he's doing his job. And if one of those kids shows that they are ready for more? Great, bump the kid up and move Kovy down. If Kovy plays himself out of the lineup, that's fine too. Go home to Russia. I don't care. His cap hit is meaningless while we are in the middle of a rebuild.

  1. We are going to be a bad team
  2. We need vets to insulate the kids
  3. It doesn't really matter if Kovy is good or not
If you just accept these truths, you will see that this is a good move for the Rangers.
Click to expand...

@GAGLine

While I very much appreciate the detailed post, I just don't agree with much of of it.
If you want to sign him for a one year deal, fine.
Anything more than that is a waste of time IMO..

I'm not saying he will suck but why even bother signing an overage player who hasn't been in the league for eons anyway and that might "potentially suck"?
If he does suck, how is that teaching the younger players anything?

Also, He's 35.
No player is going to want to be bounced around the league at that age.
Not happening IMO.
He's not signing without a NMC.
No way..
 
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Bozle said:
I think the problem here is that you’re looking at how Kovalchuk fits into the top-9 we ended the season with.

There’s a good chance that 2 or 3 of those guys aren’t here.
Click to expand...

But, why? What's the point of shipping out young players to make a spot for a much older player that'll be here for a limited amount of time?

Gorton said Namestnikov is a guy they've been looking at for a while, so I doubt he's going anywhere. Spooner had flashes of being brilliant and both of these guys moved on from teams with Stanley Cup aspirations so it must've been a big shock/letdown for them to be traded.

Kreider / Zibs / Buch (or Fast who played well with that line)
Zucc / Hayes / Spooner (Namestnikov)
Vesey / Chytill / Andersson (Namestnikov)

Fast

That's 10/11 top 9 forwards already - I don't think Fast is a 4th line player (3rd at least). If vet Zuccarello is moved you've still got enough and this is if the Rangers stand pat and sign NO ONE. Personally, I'd rather see these young guys develop under a new system/coach together and make the mistakes they're going to make and learn from them instead of sitting in the press box while Kovalchuk takes his retirement skate around the NHL for a couple of years.

And, honestly, I don't think he's going to sign here anyway if he wants a shot at hardware. We'll see.
 
Seems a lot of it depends on how our new potential head coach will use Kovy. If Kovy is used in a way that would stunt a young players growth, I doubt you’d have anyone think that’s a good thing.
 
What it REALLY depends upon is how we as fans react when a kid's minutes are suppressed if he's not ready and Kovalchuk plays more as a result. The job is to win and fans tend to crucify coaches for it.
 
Gorton added, "If we are going out and getting players it's because they are going to have an impact on us going forward, it's not going to be a one-year thing."

That doesn't sound like a short Kovalchuk deal is going to be a thing.
 
Some people in here are hilariously negative.

Are we rebuilding? Yeah
Are we the oilers of the last decade? Hell no.

It's not like we're starting from scratch with ZERO talent. There is a lot of good NHL talent on this team, people seem to forget that due to half the team being injured the whole damn season. Just because we're not bonafide contenders doesn't mean we need to be rebuilding from rock bottom and just be an AHL team for all of next year.
 
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The Lunatic Fridge said:
Some people in here are hilariously negative.

Are we rebuilding? Yeah
Are we the oilers of the last decade? Hell no.

It's not like we're starting from scratch with ZERO talent. There is a lot of good NHL talent on this team, people seem to forget that due to half the team being injured the whole damn season. Just because we're not bonafide contenders doesn't mean we need to be rebuilding from rock bottom and just be an AHL team for all of next year.
Click to expand...


Regarding your last sentence......We aren’t competing next year period. I think being an AHL team and increasing our odds of drafting Hughes is worth it
 
I wonder if they plan to change the PP structure of one of the units to allow Kovalchuk to play at the point.

If not, Zibanejad's off-wing spot on PP1 may be in jeopardy.
 
Fitzy Duke of NY said:
I wonder if they plan to change the PP structure of one of the units to allow Kovalchuk to play at the point.

If not, Zibanejad's off-wing spot on PP1 may be in jeopardy.
Click to expand...
I would switch to a 2-3 instead of a 1-3-1 and give Shattenkirk two targets.

Shattenkirk to Zibanejad was effective until it got predictable.
 
Machinehead said:
I would switch to a 2-3 instead of a 1-3-1 and give Shattenkirk two targets.

Shattenkirk to Zibanejad was effective until it got predictable.
Click to expand...

Three right handed shots isn't great diversity IMO.

I'd run, assuming no other moves

-----------Kreider-----------
Kovalchuk-Andersson/Names-Spooner
-----------Shattenkirk---------

----------Chytil----------
Zibanejad-Zuccarello-Buchnevich
------------DeAngelo/Skjei----------
 
Fitzy Duke of NY said:
Three right handed shots isn't great diversity IMO.

I'd run, assuming no other moves

-----------Kreider-----------
Kovalchuk-Andersson/Names-Spooner
-----------Shattenkirk---------

----------Chytil----------
Zibanejad-Zuccarello-Buchnevich
------------DeAngelo/Skjei----------
Click to expand...
The Caps ran three right handed shots when they had Ovy, Green, and Semin.

It was the best PP in the last 40 years.
 
Holden the Stick said:
Old man MSL went like 20 regular season games without a point for us before turning it on in the playoffs. You're that talented, you can get it done with a crummy body (Marty's thighs still so thicc tho). And if he stays terrible, he'd be a hilarious tank commander
Click to expand...
Don't think you can compare MSL to JJ in that situation....MSL had "incentive" to go on that tear in the playoffs -- certainly go them through a series they would have lost...."spirit" was gone by the time Cup Series started.
 
Machinehead said:
I would switch to a 2-3 instead of a 1-3-1 and give Shattenkirk two targets.

Shattenkirk to Zibanejad was effective until it got predictable.
Click to expand...

The reason Ovy can always be open on the Caps PP from the same spot is because the rest of the power play is also a threat to score, which is what the Rangers need to do to open up that shot. If the only noticeable threat is the guy ready for that one timer then you can easily take it away. If you have to respect some of the other players then it gets a lot tougher
 
Levitate said:
The reason Ovy can always be open on the Caps PP from the same spot is because the rest of the power play is also a threat to score, which is what the Rangers need to do to open up that shot. If the only noticeable threat is the guy ready for that one timer then you can easily take it away. If you have to respect some of the other players then it gets a lot tougher
Click to expand...

Which is why I'd at least try the three righties on the same PP, with Zuccarello/Buchnevich feeding them from the LH half boards.
 
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