Big news in the Eastern Conference today. Ilya Kovalchuk announced today that he will re-sign with the New Jersey Devils, thus ending his nearly month long flirtation with the Los Angeles Kings. I thought for certain the Kings would find some way to land Kovalchuk, but they repeatedly could not satisfy him with a large enough contract. The terms of his new deal have yet to be released and it will be interesting to see how his contract effects the rest of the Devils roster.
The signing of Kovalchuk, as expected, has now jump started the trade market with the Flyers sending Simon Gange to the Tampa Bay Lighting in return for Matt Walker and a 4th round pick. Steve Yzerman has been pretty busy this off season and now has made an immediate impact on the Lighting for next year. The Southeast Division will still belong to the Capitals, but the Lighting are certainly shaping up to be a playoff contender. The Flyers freed up cap room and now find themselves with a full roster with 1mil to spare. They have been incredibly busy this summer and have really rejuvenated the Broadstreet Bullies of the 70's. They have added tough guy Jody Shelley, retained the pest and pirate look alike Carcillo and have added another agitator/fighter in Walker. This is all in addtion to Ian Laperierre, the NHL's active leader in fighting majors. Perhaps they are going with the brawn over brain approach as taking away the scoring of Gange would seem to indicate. For a team that was a few wins away from the cup it sure seems a bit drastic to me.
There will likely be a lot more moves in Free Agency and the trade market this week as pieces and complementary players are moved around. Hopefully this will help the Bruins to free up some cap space (without trading Savard). Look for a post later tonight on some ways for the B's to get under the cap.
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