If the Atlanta Thrashers ever hope to make serious inroads in Georgia's sporting landscape -- is it even possible to compete with the Braves, Falcons, college football and NASCAR? -- they can't afford to lose their most exciting players.
Hockey is a tough sell in the South as it is, which is why the Thrashers had better find a way to keep star left wing Ilya Kovalchuk in town. Either that, or trade him for a bushel of talent.
Of course, you might ask why the talented Russian would want to keep playing in a city that doesn't really appreciate hockey and for a team that has missed the playoffs six times in his first seven NHL seasons.
At any rate, Thrashers general manager Don Waddell, who somehow manages to hang onto his job despite the club's ineptness just about every year, is trying to sign Kovalchuk to a new contract before he becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season.
That might not be so easy, considering Kovalchuk is being paid $7.5 million in the final year of his contract, already a ton of loot for a team like the Thrashers.
The 6-foot-2, 230-pounder is an offensive force, having scored between 41 and 52 goals in each of the past five seasons. He's off to a splendid start this year, too, with seven goals in the Thrashers' first five games.
Kovalchuk is just 27, so his best years could still be ahead of him, if that's even possible.
He reportedly likes being in Atlanta -- no pressure, I suppose -- but you'd think he'd enjoy playing in a more traditional hockey city even more, especially for a team with a legitimate chance at winning the Stanley Cup.
It's still early, so Waddell does have some time to get his man re-signed. If Waddell isn't able to accomplish the feat before the March 3 NHL trading deadline, he'll need to put the big guy on the market and get what he can in a trade rather than lose him to free agency and receive nothing in return.
Trust me, there would be plenty of suitors.
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