On Ilya Kovalchuk …
Chris Nichols of FRS Hockey: Darren Dreger was on TSN 690 and was talking about which teams are interested in free agent forward Ilya Kovalchuk.
“I’m going to give you a list of teams that I believe are interested in Ilya Kovalchuk,” noted Dreger during a Tuesday morning radio hit on Monteal’s TSN 690. “And I’m going to qualify that level of interest. Detroit, as I tweeted earlier today, definitely made a push. The St. Louis Blues have interest, Anaheim, Dallas, the New York Islanders. I’d put that group as potential dark horse teams.
“And then beyond that, probably more solid contenders include the likes of San Jose and Los Angeles, and I’d put the Boston Bruins in that group and maybe the New York Rangers as well. So there’s a total of nine teams.”
Dreger adds that the Maple Leafs and Canadiens aren’t included as neither has spoken with Kovalchuk nor does he see them as a fit.
On the Boston Bruins and Ilya Kovalchuk …
Matt Kalman: If the salary cap ceiling goes to $80 million, the Bruins will have about $12 to $13 million in space. If they can sign a backup goalie at $1 to $1.5 million, and Kovalchuk around $5 to $5.5 million, they’ll still have a little cap room. They’d have to fill their remaining holes with players on entry-level contract or second deals.
Joe Haggerty of NBC Sports Boston: Kovalchuk is exactly what the Bruins are looking for, for their second line. He’s a 6′ 3″ and 230 left winger who can score.
A perfect world would see the Bruins acquire a younger second line winger, but signing Kovalchuk means they don’t give up assets.
Signing Kovalchuk would be better than re-signing Rick Nash.
The cost to sign Kovalchuk is another question. Pending free agents include Riley Nash, Anton Khudobin, Tim Schaller, Sean Kuraly and Matt Grzelcyk, and they don’t have a lot of salary cap space.