Oilers Interested In Kovalchuk?

Are the Oilers interested in Ilya Kovalchuk? Yes, I'm sure they would be, as would the other 29 other teams in the NHL. Does that mean the Oilers are making a pitch to get him? Let's look at the facts.

The Atlanta Thrashers need Ilya Kovalchuk. Badly.

Without him, or at least a player of similar star quality to replace him, you can pretty much kiss hockey in the Atlanta market goodbye. This tells us, and we have confirmation as much that Waddell is doing everything in his power to get this deal finished, and he'll continue to do so throwing in everything, including the kitchen sink.

Ilya Kovalchuk is poised to be the next $100 million dollar hockey player. He'll get no better offers than in Atlanta where the team has done everything to appease the superstar including aquiring a few European players to play along side him, hopefully making Kovalchuk feel more at ease.

These types of moves are not moves that get made if a team isn't confident it can reach an agreement at some point. Kovalchuk has even gone out publicly stating his recognition of the Thrashers doing as much to get him players he can play with.

Normally I wouldn't waste time on non-sense rumors like this, but as an Oiler fan, it's probably smart to tell fans not to get some false sense of hope. This deal will never happen.