Big Hockey News Day

Stunning news on two NHL fronts.

First, the Columbus Blue Jackets have in the last few hours fired head coach Ken Hitchcock and replaced him with assistant coach Claude Noel. After making the playoffs last season, the Jackets are 14th in the Western Conference, and Hitchcock's status has been in question for weeks.

Still, it's a shocker, particularly with Hitchcock set to be one of Team Canada's coaches at the upcoming Vancouver Olympics under head coach Mike Babcock. Amazingly, it's the second time this has happened to Hitchcock in an Olympic year when he was set to coach for Canada. The Dallas Stars fired him in late January, 2002, and he went on to win a gold medal as an assistant under Pat Quinn.

Meanwhile, reports from RDS and TSN today confirm Atlanta GM Don Waddell has told star winger Ilya Kovalchuk to expect a trade, sooner as opposed to later.

Let the auction begin.

If the price for Phil Kessel was two firsts and a second, what could it be for Kovalchuk, a 26-year-old forward with 328 career goals in eight seasons?

The difference is, of course, that Kovalchuk is an unrestricted free agent in July, so this could just be a rental situation, with the KHL possibly looming in the background with — allegedly — a $15 milion-a-year bid.

Kovalchuk's never had much team success in Atlanta, but he did score the gold medal winning goal for Russian the Quebec City world championships, and he's a proven, money-in-the-bank 40- to 50-goal man, and a big power forward to boot.

The Leafs, in case you're wondering, won't be in this one. Don't have the goods to make a deal even if they wanted to.

Boston, L.A., Chicago and Philly, among others, are all lining up with a bid, but the price will be absolutely fascinating. Calgary, meanwhiile, could be in the mix, and a hard pitch for Kovalchuk would make the emphasis on quantity over quality in two recent deals by Darryl Sutter make sense.

The best fit? Probably L.A., where the Kings have the players and the payroll flexibiity. But is this the right time for that team to make this move when they probably can neither win the Cup nor guarantee Kovalchuk will play for them beyond this season.

What about the Hawks? Might they be worried enough about Patrick Kane's maturity to do a Kane-for-Kovalchuk swap just as the Thrashers and Senators once combined on a Dany Heatley-for-Marian Hossa deal?

This story is going to heat up in a hurry.

Comments

[Brad Mitchell]

"...If the price for Phil Kessel was two firsts and a second, what could it be for Kovalchuk, a 26-year-old forward with 328 career goals in eight seasons?

The difference is, of course, that Kovalchuk is an unrestricted free agent in July, so this could just be a rental situation, with the KHL possibly looming..."

> The other difference is that everyone (except you) realizes that Burke grossly overpaid for Kessel. And while you constantly defend that trade, why don't you ever mention that Burke could have had Kessel for 1-2-3 instead of 1-1-2. Boston was in no position to match an offer sheet being right up against the cap. And Burke only traded for him (instead of outright signing him) so he wouldn't look like a hypocrite for criticizing Lowe's offer sheet of Penner. But you like Burke, so you allow your objectivty to be compromised and you always use the glass-half-full approach with him. Conversely, you dislike Fletcher, the better GM, so you have always used the glass-half-empty approach with him. You relentlessly blasted Fletcher for giving away a 2nd rounder for Grabovski, who is easily a 60 pointer going forward, and now Toronto's best centre. Yet, Kessel, a 40-40 man in his best future season is somehow worth 2 picks in the top 5, plus a 2nd rounder? Mind boggling. It's interesting you point to Boston's struggles as evidence, but anyone who follows that team regularly knows they have issues that go way beyond losing one player. Major Injuries for one (to 3 of their best forwards), Wideman regressing from last year's form, Thomas being another year older etc etc etc.

[Kevin MacEachern]

Brian Burke has sure opened up the floodgates. It appears that trade deadline day has switched to deadline month, especially with the pending Olympic freeze. Exciting times indeed!

[William]

Why would anyone even consider giving up anything of substance for Kovalchuk. Too many variables involved with this guy. Yes he can score goals. Yes he is a bonafide power forward. However, if the rumours are true and after this season he signs a $15 million contract with the KHL, what did you gain aside from a rental player for what you gave up! Not worth it !

[Hawkman]

Kane for Kovalchuk? Are you nuts or just smoking hash? We just signed Kane and Toews to 5 year deals to cement the nucleus of this team for good. Do you really think the Hawks would give up Kane to rent Kovalchuk for a few months? The only lack of "maturity" I see is in this infantile speculation from a clown who knows nothing about hockey outside of Toronto.

[Jabba]

LOL - I gotta agree with Hawkman's assessment about your speculation of a Kane for Kovalchuk trade. The fact that you actually typed those words is pretty funny.
Hey, while your at it, maybe you can speculate on a Finger for Seabrook trade, or maybe a Poni for Matt Duchene trade.
P.S. The first poster was kinda harsh. I am sure that Burke would take that Kessel trade back if he could but at least we still have a 21yr old who can score 40 plus goals for us for years to come. We have given first round picks away for WAY WAY WAY worst....I can live with this one.

[Phil Chin]

If you're a team wanting to win why on earth would you try to get Kovalchuk. If you do, you'll have to pay him 10+ million. Thus crippling you from building a TEAM under the cap. I can't name one team that won a stanley cup with one player.

I'm glad burke has stayed out of this race.

[CM]

Easy there Brad Mitchell. Fletcher is a better GM? Two words buddy: Jeff Finger. People need to stop whining about the Kessel deal. If Kessel were in this draft he'd be in the top three for sure. Everybody seems to think that every draft's top pick is Sidney Crosby. It isn't. Taylor Hall is not Sidney Crosby. Not even close. He's not even Steve Stamkos. The Year Kessel was drafted Erik Johnson, Jordan Staal, Jonathan Toews and Nicklas Backstrom were drafted before him. Every one of these guys were better than Taylor Hall or Tyler Seguin at that age and I'd bet it all that neither player becomes anything close to Backstrom or Toews. I don't like giving away first rounders either but when you can get a guy who is going to be a 40 goal scorer and already almost WAS a 40 goal scorer and that guy is 22 years old you DO it. Only 8 guys got more goals than Kessel last year; 8 out of over 700. Just look at Boston this year; struggling mightily to score. Phil Kessel, despite missing the first fifteen games of the season and having a five game slump, STILL has more goals than anybody on Boston. What exactly do you base your opinion that the 3rd overall in 2010 (where the Bruins will likely draft) is automatically going to be better than the 5th overall in 2010? Seriously what do you base this on? I am 29 years old and I have NEVER seen the Leafs this young. Draft picks? Let's go through that shall we: The Leafs have FIVE top 10 draft picks since 2001: Komisarek (7th overall 2001), Phaneuf (9th overall 2003), Kessel (5th overall 2006), Schenn (5th overall 2008) and Kadri (7th overall 2009). If you don't think that five top ten draft picks under 28 years old make a up a good core to build around then you are obtuse. It's like everybody has this magical view that the lottery pick this year was going to fix everything. How many games have you seen Hall play against men? None. Cox has it right. Oh and two of the last 4 Stanley Cup Champions (Anaheim and Detroit) had zero 'lottery picks' in their lineup. They won through good development of later picks like Zetterberg and Datsyuk in Detroit or Getzlaf and Perry in Anaheim, combined with unsigned free agents like Andy MacDonald, Chris Kunitz, Dustin Penner, and through trades/free agency like the top six d in Anaheim and a slew of UFAs in Detroit like Rafalski. Get your facts straight instead of writing fiction.

[Thunder Blood]

Kovalchuk to the Devils, Big Lou always has the knack for pulling off big deals.