Kovalchuk drama taking place outside of Thrasherville…thankfully

Monday July 19. U-Day +18 of this summer’s UFA signing season. Many big name free agents have inked contracts with new teams, some have made their way to Russia and a few more are still waiting for the right team to offer up the right terms.

The biggest name on that “still yet to be signed list” is of course one Mr. Ilya Kovalchuk.

Once the face of the Thrashers franchise, Ilya Kovalchuk now faces the prospect of listening to offers that would pay less than what he could have made in Atlanta (AP photo)

Over the course of the past two and a half weeks, many rumors and rumor of rumors have had Kovy going such places as Long Island, back to New Jersey or even returning home to mother Russia. But Los Angeles still seems to be the chic pick by most as to where he’ll eventually land. As such, ever since July 1 we’ve been treated to tweet after tweet from [insert name of ‘tweeter’ here] telling us that they are 92.8% sure Kovalchuk is almost definitely going to sign with LA…maybe even as soon as tomorrow morning.

But tomorrow morning comes and all we are greeted with is more tweeters tweeting they are sure that this is the day.

So how must it feel to be a Kings fan the days… sitting on the edge of their seat, ear to the radio, face to the computer screen, nose to the twitter account…as they await the almost certain coming news that Kovy is heading to SoCal? Well, here’s something that may helpto depict how this drama is playing out in the L.A. twitterverse, (thanks to my good friend “Russian”).

And now that we’re deep into week number three of this saga, some pundits are beginning to opine as to how the Russian winger has misread the market as well as suggested how he could have/should have handled the situation from the get-go. (Note here how Steven Ovadia has used another former Thrasher, Marian Hossa, to illustrate his point).

I would also like to remind you that stringing out contract talks isn’t exactly a new thing for Ilya Kovalchuk and his agent. You’ll no doubt remember that we here in Thrasherville were treated to our own version of “As the Kovalchuk Turns” back in the summer of 2005. That year he waited so long to sign a deal that we were minus his services for the first three games of the season.

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So if there is to be a repeat of that holdout drama, then Kovy-Watch ’10 as only just begun.

About the only thing that seems to be certain regarding Ilya’s summer adventure this time is that he’s not going to get the same coin as the Thrashers offered up to him last winter. $10 million for 3 to 7 years or somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 mil for 12 years is now seems surely out of the question for Kovy.

So just where will Kovalchuk eventual wind up…and when will he wind up there? shrugs…I dunno. But all I can say is that I’m glad happy thrilledecstatic that Thrasherville is not the site of this particular saga.

In fact, I’m sorta looking forward this coming season in which the Thrashers aren’t having to deal with such distractions. You know, distractions such as whether or not superstars like Marian Hossa or Ilya Kovalchuk will re-sign…or if Kari Lehtonen’s back/groin/[insert issue here] will keep him out of the lineup for an extended period of time.

Quite frankly…Thrasherville can do without the drama.