Polemic Hockey

Well, let's just say I'm from Missouri. (OK, I'm not, but my mom is.)

I'll lighten up on Kovy when he does something in the playoffs. And if the current rumor is true, that it is a 17 year $100m contract, then I'm not only shocked that Lou would do it, but I think it's a terrible mistake. [$102m over 17. Wow.]

I don't think the Devils are this one piece away from the Cup, obviously. I don't know if Kovalchuk has the  chops to replace Martin Brodeur as the franchise player.

But this is all premature. And Zach Parise better call up his real estate agent.

This might go a long way to changing the Devils image, which is basically based on stuff from a long time ago that everyone else copy-catted anyway, to a scoring team. But whatever.

I guess the up side is that it's only a $5.88 $6m per year cap hit, and he's definitely worth that now.

Don't get me wrong: Kovalchuk is a great player. But I have always admired the Devils for their formula of success: draft, make strategic, long-term trades, and build from the goal forward. Today, they just completely reversed that.

Lou hasn't been the best GM in the league since the cap came into place. He's been among the better ones, but he has made some major mistakes, including the returns of Malakhov and Mogilny. Lou was praised for being able to dump those salaries, but in the mean time that money wasn't available for players that would actually help them win. The return of Bobby Holik and Brian Rolston (especially the latter) have been abortions.

The window is closing on Martin Brodeur's career. I personally want to see him win another Cup so that the comparisons to Roy will cease. I hope that this move will help in that regard.