I know management says they don’t have the dollars to chase this guy and I know all about the arguments about his all-offense playing style not fitting in, but I have to admit that I’d love to see this guy wearing No. 17 and a Bluenote.

Add this guy and a starting goalie and the Blues go from slowly building to playoff-ready.

And they instantly sell a shitload of season tickets, guaranteed.

I’m not sold on this idea.

At least not until we re-sign Perron, EJ and Steen.

A left-winger veteran guaranteed goal-scorer who can add skills to a team that can play a physical game around him. I was reading the article earlier and one of the things it mentioned he wanted was a good city, seeing how he has three kids, and quite frankly: has there ever been a hockey player who didn’t like St. Louis? Scott Mellanby kept his family here, Tkachuk wants to stay here too.. and we’re a franchise filled with young kids looking for someone to guide them to victory. As Gallagher and many others have pointed out, he’d probably cause a lot of hair-pulling if he gives up on the backcheck like he did in Atlanta, but the Blues right now kind of make up for his recklessness with solid defense. He’d be perfect for a team that was plagued by being too good at defense and not getting goals when they needed to.

I wish the Blues could lower his asking price to something manageable in exchange for being the big scoring cannon on a defense-minded team, but we’ll just have to see how it goes. I’m liking that we’re mentioned as a potential franchise for him, though — even if MGMT is balking at the idea.

But chea, PCS is right — take care of what we have at home before going to town on this one.

I really need to stop reading these Kovy articles…
They all mention the Blues, and then I get all excited, because having him here would be awesome.
But it’s just not going to happen. We have important players to sign who I certainly don’t want to see go, and I don’t think canceling Prospect Camp gives the club enough money to throw at Kovalchuk to make him bite, so… yeah.
Thanks for getting my hopes up… again…

Let Ilya choose the Blues.

The RFA’s will take care of themselves. EJ can’t even sign an offer sheet. Steen’ll stay if he’s smart.

St. Louis Game Time should make Kovalchuk a pamphlet on why he should sign here, detailing the history of the Blues, the small-town-feel of vibrant St. Louis, and the need for a player like him in our franchise.

Then we will use it to gather our tears when he signs with LA.

I’d like to see his goal-scoring on the Blues’ left wing.

I don’t think the Blues have the financial wherewithal at this time to pay his asking price, nor do I think that St. Louis is a “sexy” enough city for one of the game’s biggest stars.

I’ll give Kovalchuk the benefit of the doubt, and take him at his word when he says that he wants a “good” city for his family… and the point was made, and hereby seconded, that there has yet to be a player to my knowledge that has played here for any length of time and didn’t fall in love with St. Louis.

And there is the notion that Kovalchuk’s presence here would force the league and the networks to pay attention to St. Louis, wether they want to or not… and I like the idea of St. Louis and the Blues being the underdog, the Little Engine That Could, the anti-hero.

What better way to give a Gateway Arch-sized “eff you and horse’s ass you rode in on” to Bettman, ESPN, Versus, and the whole East Coast-Detroit-LA powers-that-be establishment, than to sign Kovalchuk, acquire a real starting goaltender, and — God willing and the creek don’t rise — win that big silver thing that two teams I really dislike are currently playing for…

So in the end, I don’t know. If Kovalchuk can be broiught here without losing the solid young players that this franchise is clearly building around, then do it. If it’s a choice between signing Kovalchuk, and retaining Perron and Steen, for example, then that’s a tougher call to make.

B.

My perfect offseason:

Blues trade for Boston’s No. 2 pick and get either Taylor or Tyler. No team in the league could match our offer. Something along the lines of the 2010 first, Rundblad and one of our second-tier forwards (like Sonne or something). The Blues lack a young superstar, and either one of these two seems to fit the bill.

Blues sign Kovie. He would cost about the amount of Walt + Kariya, but the ticket sales would spike and I think the Blues could make the playoffs with him.

Imagine these lines: Kovie/Happy Meal/Backes
Perron/Tyler Seguin/Oshie
Steen/Berglund/Boyes
Random winger/Silent Jay/ BJ

You can’t tell me that’s not an upgrade.

Hell, the Blues could even resign Mason and hope to win more 4-3 games. And the best prospects would be intact (Petro, Eller, Allen).

Two moves could change the direction of the franchise for the better.

It would be exciting, yes. It’d be awesome to see the Blues land the biggest player they’ve gotten since Gretzky, and I want the team to get all the publicity in the world – heck, maybe if we got Kovy we’d actually have the REAL team in an ad for NHL Ice Time.

And then there’s the reality of having Ilya Kovalchuk on your team. I’m not going to lie, he’s really fucking exciting to watch. He gets the puck and the whole arena scoots to the edge of their seats. He has his moments of leadership, like when he beat the hell out of Brian McCabe when he wouldn’t stop pestering the Thrashers’ players. And God, he can score. But there’s a flip side. He has no idea how to play defense – don’t let this past season’s numbers fool you. He was playing in front of a much improved Thrasher defense and then an excellent Devils one. And yet he still managed to be barely over even. He scores 40 goals a season, and is like a career -81. He floats around the defensive zone, waiting for someone to feed him the puck so he can zip up the middle, but he never attempts to get the puck himself. He’s watched people run our rookies (most notably, Tobias Enstrom when a Hab tried to break his neck into the boards) every single year, and never does anything about it.

The only time he fights, the only time he gets frustrated, is when he’s upset with his play. Then he takes the whole team on his shoulders and tries to do everything himself, which leads to turnovers and stupid play. He then breaks his stick over the goal and refuses to say anything to the media afterward. He got booed off of the ice his last game here.

He’s fun, but he is NOT a franchise cornerstone. He’s a pleasant accessory that needs to be properly utilized. I don’t want to see him get priority over our young guys who need to develop correctly. I’d place a real goaltender waaaay higher on the importance list over Kovalchuk.

Or is he going to depend on his lesser-paid linemates to handle that for him?

Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see this happen. But he’s got to be able to play some D, and there’s not a good track record of Kovy actually laying that bit down.

By the way, count me on board with Joe’s idea. People named Tyler are awesome.

We are overloaded on the left wing this way. The cap is gonna go up to roughly 58 so we will have about 2 mil in room but I think we trade Boyes to save money and let Brewer walk next year.