It appears the the Thrashers are demanding the Toronto pick and as a result the talks have hit an impasse. If the Thrashers continue to only want to talk about this pick, Chiarelli should walk away.


http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/hockey/bruins/graig-woodburn/2010/01/28/too-great-cost-why-bruins-pursuit-kovalchuk-ha

Two possibilities here.

1.  No true source, total speculation. 

2.  The B's are doing this as a PR move to go with the whole "We really tried but it was just too much of a cost" routine that we've heard a million times before.

Good points made by Not-A-Shot.

if it is true, geez, does Waddell really think we're stupid enough to trade Taylor Hall for a rental? Don - you're stupid, go get a job at Dunkin Donuts, or better yet, we'll look for you as the junior greeter-in-training at the next WalMart that opens in the Atlanta area.

Waddell's desperate.  That Toronto pick demand turns into a Bruins pick settle at midnight, 3/3/10.

Waddell's desperate

Reading the other team's web sites and rumour mills every single team is in the Kovy sweeptstakes.

EVERY TEAM.  And Waddell's desperate.  LIke hell he is.

Of course Wadell is desperate, if he doesn't get something big enough to sell to the fans he's out after the season. He has screwed Atlanta over for the last time, and he knows it. Losing Coburn and Hossa was bad enough, but Kovalchuk was their franchise player. I have a feeling that Kovalchuk is willing to settle for less than the 20% of a cap. If he really wanted so much money he would've said he's leaving for the KHL already. If Wadell trades Kovalchuk and gets less than market value (which is a guarantee for the 2nd best sniper in the league) and Kovalchuk signs long term somewhere else for less than $10 mil a year then Wadell looks so much worse. I expect them to keep Kovalchuk and unless Atlanta makes it to the conference semi-finals or better then Wadell will be out and Atlanta will be poised to relocate.

I wouldnt sign Kovy at the price he wants, nevermind having to give up picks and players to boot.

Why is Waddell desperate at this time in the season??

He holds all the cards there are teams that are only 1 player away from making a serious run at the cup. Take the Blackhawks add Kovi sub track some of there young players and they are scary good if there goaltending holds up.

I have not heard anything about the devils being involved not sure if they have the ammo to get Kovi but with him that team might be unstopable.

Damn right he is.   Kovy's an UFA.  Waddell's playing school yard punk right now, but he's about to get knocked out when 3/3/10, 23:59 arrives.

Bruins fans should forget about Kovalchuk already - there isn't a good deal the Bruins could make for him and Chiarelli isn't about to go all-in to get a guy for 20-30 games plus the playoffs.  Let's think about a Whitney or a Ponikarovsky here.  Guys that would be realistic to acquire and that would help the Bruins down the stretch and into the playoffs.

Kovy will go to the Blakchawks - there is a team that will go all-in because of their cap situation next year.

I'd rather think about Seguin, Hall or Fowler to be honest.

Me too - won't take Toronto's 1st to get Whitney or Ponikarovsky.  That pick should not be on the table for ANYONE. 

The lottery sweepstakes are looking great right now too because Carolina is finally playing good hockey.

I'll take Seguin we already had a Taylor Hall back in the 80's wore #23 for 7 games and we need scoring not another D, I'll pass on Fowler as well.

To get Kovalchuk for this year, we need to free up 6.2M in Salary. Minimum salary Ryder 4M and Hunwick 1.4M and Pail 1M, the problem being too many core players to fit 1 salary.
To sign him next year we have 11.6M in cap room with 8 players unsigned.

At a cap sign of 9M, we would have 2.6M + 6.2M+ cap trade for him for 8+ players traded.  To get under the cap we need to dump salary and then resign players for less.

Are we going to get our value for him.  It will be tough if we don't get players NHL ready this year to fill the loss of lineup to get him at of course cap friendly prices. We will then need to fill that void with less expensive players next year, hopefully Hall/Seguin can fill 1 spot and possibly Colborne, Caron Sauve another 1 or 2 to keep the costs down. Then we also need to sign players that are seeking a raise in coming year like Stuart and Ference.

It can be done to get him, but it will require a lot of support from other teams in taking our salaries and giving us back quality players to replace what we are giving up.

I want him for a run at the cup and we need his scoring but how depleted will we be and can we depend on our supporting cast from Prov(we haven't been able to so far).

We need a scorer no matter what, but no matter what we are going to have to dump salary to get any scorer.

The best scenario would be Ryder Sturm and Wideman 11.5M plus prospects and picks(not TO) for Koval and Phaneuf 12.3M. Sturm will not waive and we will still be down a winger. Atl and Cal probably don't want these players anyhow and to get them we would have to give up the core(Berg Krej Wheel etc.) that we need and that has made us a strong team in past.

This is definitely a catch 22 dilemma and without knowing what the other teams are offering it gets harder and harder to speculate but possibly more fun especially when you here a 2nd rounder for Whitney.

id trade tor 1st rd pick for kovy if hes signd long term

But if Kovy's agent is allowed to find him a deal, and Waddell doesn't like what that deal is producing in return, Kovy can just let March 3rd roll by and do that sweet deal July 1st.  ..And Waddell finds himself on a Most Wanted poster.

Ray Whitney is a kid huh?  He's 37.  You must be 70 years old to consider him a kid... 

// 3/3/10, 23:59 arrives. / Well put Bim and PC will be in the hunt all the way up to that point.

If things have stalled, break out the jumper cables!!!

Solving the Bruins problems is simple:

Here is my 4 Step program to lead the Bruins to yearly Cup Contenders:

1.  Fire Julien--- (He will never guide this team to a cup)

2.  Trade Tim Thomas-- get out from the brutal contract.  (He has trade value and  can bring a Valuable role player in return).  Teams with Goalie Needs --Chicago and Washington.

3. Trade Wideman-- Don't expect much in return but at least its frees up cap space.

4.  Cut Chara's Minutes per game.  He will be more effective if they use him more wisely and his production will increase drastically.  Also, he should fight at least once every 10 games.  Other teams are taking liberties with him this year because he is not dropping his gloves.

ya all think 11,000,000 for a player that you dont know will stick it out in boston the bruins gave away thorton , bourque ,orr for a bunch of nobody trade the team do we want to rebuild again and again think not , julian has to either lay the plank down an tell the player , who wants to play or demote them to the ahl for a few weeks , go figure top of the world last year a flop this year , you all think kessel was god in boston i think not , ya as good as you are when you have somebody feeding u every nite what boston sent to carlina last summer is the missing link the d-man an we all know who it was

wow I guess sometimes you can see the future
 is Waddell desperate at this time in the season??

He holds all the cards there are teams that are only 1 player away from making a serious run at the cup. Take the Blackhawks add Kovi sub track some of there young players and they are scary good if there goaltending holds up.

I have not heard anything about the devils being involved not sure if they have the ammo to get Kovi but with him that team might be unstopable.