Kovalchuk get the maximum salary, 11,36M$ / season

[Guest mindfly]

http://hockey.expressen.se/Nyheter/1.16490...lon-85-miljoner

How can he be worth more than ovechkin? hmmm

[P. Marlowe 748]

It's not the case of who's worth what with teams like that. Atlanta had some spare money and badly wanted to keep him.

[Guest mindfly]

True that... when i looked at their team they were just barely over the capfloor

[awingsincebirth 0]

http://hockey.expressen.se/Nyheter/1.16490...lon-85-miljoner

How can he be worth more than ovechkin? hmmm

I think the better question is: who knowingly signs a contract extension with the Thrashers?!?! (assuming that is what this is about)

[Guest mindfly]

When you get the status of "best paid player in the NHL" i'm sure anyone would play anywhere... atleast russian players

[Tr!PoD#19 524]

I think the better question is: who knowingly signs a contract extension with the Thrashers?!?! (assuming that is what this is about)

Atlanta has some good young talent in Bogosian, Little, Enstrom, Esposito, E.Kane, etc. They have a good thing going IMO, I hope Kovalchuk stays.

[chrisdetroit 189]

http://hockey.expressen.se/Nyheter/1.16490...lon-85-miljoner

How can he be worth more than ovechkin? hmmm

Unbelieveable. He is not the best player in the league but he is going to be paid higher than

Datsyuk

Zetterburg

Crosby

Malkin

Luongo

Broduer

Ovechkin

[Carman 387]

Unbelieveable. He is not the best player in the league but he is going to be paid higher than

Datsyuk

Zetterburg

Crosby

Malkin

Luongo

Broduer

Ovechkin

Players are paid for the role they perform on their team. Kovy is practically the only thing keeping the Thrashers a NHL team. He is undoubtedly more important to his team then those players are to their respective teams. With that said, this does show what is important to him, Money over Winning.

[StevieY9802 6]

I thought you could only have one player on your team that takes up 20% of the cap. So what if the cap goes to like $52mil? 11mil is more than 20% of that

[mmamolo 287]

That is absolutely absurd. I'm not one of those ppl who get all up in arms about how much pro athletes make (and if I were even this contract for Kovalchuk doesnt comepare to a Alex Rodriguez) but living in a cap world with the uncertainty of the upcoming years (potentially going down) I do not understand how a GM could fork over that kidn of cash to ANY one player and expect to fill out his roster to be a contender. As much as I love a lot of players in the NHL I don't think any player is worth 20% or your cap (Lidstrom, Datsyuk or anyone else for that matter included).

[awingsincebirth 0]

I can't seem to find this info anywhere in English. What's the term on this beast? Is $11.whatever the actual cap hit. That would be incomprehensible if it were.

[StevieY9802 6]

When I translated the article it doesn't say he's signed yet.

[Doc Holiday 0]

Considering Kovy IS the Thrashers this doesn't surprise me.

They need more salary, they need Kovalchuck probably more than any other team needs a player, and they have the money to keep him.

I don't see this as a huge problem.

[Chelios57 31]

I hope we can find this in English soon. But if this is true, I will be extremely happy! The Thrashers have more than enough money to spend, and they need him on that team. He's one of the best players in the league, but no one realizes it because his team is so terrible. He is my favorite player on my favorite team... outside of the Red Wings of course.

[albo23 10]

This is confirmed as untrue. It was mistranslation through different sources.

[Guest Shoreline]

Well, he's that valuable to the franchise. I bet the KHL would have offered him a sweetheart deal if they hadn't paid him that. But overall, glad to see he's taking one for the team! At very least they'll have a superstar to rely on watching when the Thrash keep missing the playoffs. One guy taking 1/5th of a team's salary is selfish, so even with the aforementioned, winning clearly isn't in his mindset. If that's what the Thrashers prefer, so be it.

Edited July 23, 2009 by Shoreline

[mmamolo 287]

THink about it, you could have Franzen and Lidstrom for the cost of Kovalchuk's new 'deal'. That's insane. Until it's confirmed I don't really beleive it to be honest

[titanium2 867]

It doesn't really make sense from his perspective. Supposedly he doesn't want to win and is just looking for some bank. Can't he get a much better deal from the KHL? Closer to home, tax free money, Euro style hockey. What exactly is keeping him in Atlanta? The World of Coca-Cola museum?

[Guest mindfly]

It just says he's "expected to sign within the next few days" so it isn't signed and the source is originally russian...

[RainingBlood 8]

I wish I could read the article

[CenterIce 83]

I wish I could read the article

Here is the Google translation:

There are wages, and so are the Atlanta Thrashers captain Ilya Kovalchuks pay.

It can hardly be compared with anyone else.

According to Russian site Allhockey.ru, which Hockeysverige.se refers to, then a new agreement with the Trashers give Kovalchuk 11.36 million dollars per season - over 85 million.

Shall the maximum

It is the maximum as an NHL player can earn after the new collective agreement came into force.

Ilja Kovalchuk finished sixth in the points league last year and may pay cod despite his team missed the finals last season.

Last season topped Dany Heatley in Ottawa on fat pay league of 10 million dollars per season.

[RedWings Gone Wild 6]

Datsyuk

Zetterburg

Crosby

Malkin

Luongo

Broduer

Ovechkin

If you've watched any of the international tournaments Kovalchuk has played in, he's right up in Ovechkin/Malkin territory when he's got a couple decent pieces around him and some motivation. Atlanta's been god-awful ... well.. basically since they came into the league. Personally, I place him right up at the top of the league in terms of skill and ability, but can you blame him for not investing himself into every little shift in a place like Atlanta? He's been consistently netting 40-50 goals a season for a while now without ever having anyone feeding him the puck, and without having much of a goal to work towards since they are usually out of any realistic playoff contention early on. Not to mention he's on a team with one offensive threat (unless you consider Kozlov)... It makes a big different to be an Ovechkin, Crosby, or Zetterberg who has some of the attention diverted to the Semins, Greens, Malkins, Franzens and Datsyuks on your team.

That being said, that's the kind of cap hit that will make it hard for Atlanta to accomplish much in the future... Going to be hard to sign in much talent with that kind of money invested in one guy.

Edited July 23, 2009 by RedWings Gone Wild

[purebooyah 1]

Unbelieveable. He is not the best player in the league but he is going to be paid higher than

Datsyuk

Zetterburg

Crosby

Malkin

Luongo

Broduer

Ovechkin

Not to mention he's almost paid more than Datsyuk and Zetterberg combined.

[stactum 4]

It funny, I tried to find the source and here what it comes down to:

DRW < Swedish Newspaper < allhockey.ru < sovsport.ru < Atlanta Journal & Constitution

expressen.se (Swedish)

http://hockey.expressen.se/Nyheter/1.16490...lon-85-miljoner

allhockey.ru (Russian)

http://allhockey.ru/news/57412/

sovsport.ru (Russian)

http://www.sovsport.ru/gazeta/article-item/339137

Atlanta Journal & Constitution

http://blogs.ajc.com/jeff-schultz-blog/200...-the-hard-sell/

And this is probably where they picked up this info:

Kovalchuk has a year left on his contract at $7.5 million. Theoretically, his new deal could pay him up to $11.2 million per season (20 percent of the NHL salary cap of $56 million). The bigger issue is term: The NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement has no cap on length of contract. For example, former Thrasher Marian Hossa just signed a 12-year deal with the Chicago Blackhawks (no doubt clinching the Cup for the Blackhawks in 13 years).

It is all very hypothetical

[sibiriak 84]

When you get the status of "best paid player in the NHL" i'm sure anyone would play anywhere... atleast russian players

stuff you, mister.

Like there never has been a non-Russian hockey player who chose to earn a lot of money on a bottom-tier team. In fact, by your logic, why would any (Non-Russian) player ever play for a tem like that. And yet, Atlanta, Phoenix, Florida etrc. manage to ice 20 skaters (not 100% of them Russian) every night.

As to this article, I read the Russian article, that was mistranslated here, and it was a pure speculation on what it might take to keep Kovalchuk in Atlanta by some writer. So you owe an apology to Kovy, if not all Russian NHLers whose character you impuned.