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Kings would be interested in re-pursuing Kovalchuk

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The fun part to an ongoing controversy is how it can find new and inventive ways to blow up a little more each and every day. While the league has done more than it’s part to stir up a hornet’s nest by rejecting Ilya Kovalchuk’s contract with the New Jersey Devils, when one door sort of closes another one sort of opens.

It only makes sense that if things with the Devils, NHL and Kovalchuk blow up completely and irreparably that the other suitor for Kovalchuk, the Los Angeles Kings, would be right there to potentially save the day. Helene Thomas of the Los Angeles Times drops some knowledge on us.

The Kings would again be interested in signing high-scoring winger Ilya Kovalchuk if the NHL’s rejection of his 17-year, $102-million contract with the New Jersey Devils stands and he becomes a free agent, a source familiar with the team’s thinking but not authorized to comment publicly said Wednesday.

Before the Kings can rekindle their dreams, a series of steps must be followed as a result of the NHL’s attempt to discourage teams from front-loading big contracts to minimize the charge against the salary cap and paying players past the point at which they could reasonably expect to be effective.

There’s only about a thousand steps in the way before the Kings can even comprehend getting back involved with Kovalchuk, and all of those things have to do with the Devils, Lou Lamoriello and the NHLPA. Kings GM Dean Lombardi did say earlier that if things get back to the point where Kovalchuk is ruled to be an unrestricted free agent once again
that they’d be interested in the superstar winger.

I’d like to say that this seems like it would be a long shot and a half but given everything that’s transpired through this entire incredible saga, I can’t rule anything out from happening. At this point, I wouldn’t even rule out the possibility of Kovalchuk being abducted by aliens and playing on Mars.