Top 5: Biggest Questions Heading Into The Preseason
By TIM SULLIVAN
Consider the blows that the New Jersey Devils had to endure to eventually sign Ilya Kovalchuk:
1. They were put on hold by the Kovalchuk Camp for weeks, while the All-Star winger decided whether or not he wanted to return to Russia, play for the Devils or leave for the Los Angeles Kings. All the while, the Devils watched most other marquee free agents sign elsewhere.
2. They then signed him to a 17-year deal. A day later, however, the NHL rejected the pact, saying it circumvented the salary cap.
3. Finally, they agreed to a 15-year, $100-million deal that was approved. A week later, though, the NHL hit them with a $3 million fine and a loss of two draft picks as punishment.
4. And now, as training camp opens in Newark Friday, general manager Lou Lamoriello is working feverishly to allow New Jersey enough salary-cap room to keep Kovalchuk.
Whew. And you thought all the summer action in the Garden State happened on the Jersey Shore, didn’t you?
Which brings us to our Top 5 NHL Training Camp questions. The biggest one out there - after the Summer of Ilya - is this: Is he worth it?
“This was an opportunity to get a player of the highest caliber,” Lamoriello said. “The kind of player we are not in position to draft.”
That is true. Kovalchuk, 27, is a three-time All-Star and a two-time 50-goal scorer. That said, he has never won a playoff series.
“This is an exceptional player who wants to win a Stanley Cup,” Devils coach John MacLean said. “He has the ability to help us win.”
Time will tell, John. In the interim, let’s take a gander at four other burning questions:
Will the Maple Leafs ever make the playoffs again?
Indeed, it’s been a tough stretch in Toronto, which hasn’t seen a postseason game in five years.
But the Leafs did make summer strides. They will be tougher up front with the additions of forwards Kris Versteeg and Colby Armstrong and may have enough punch to avoid the season-opening slide that doomed them last year.
Let’s put it this way, they started 0-7-1 last year. So, if they get a win in the first two weeks this year, it could be a whole new game.
Can the cap-strapped Blackhawks repeat?
It won’t be easy, as cost-cutting measures resulted in nine players being shuttled off the Stanley Cup roster. Gone are Versteeg, John Madden and Dustin Byfuglien, who were forces up front, as well as goalie Antti Niemi.
But Marty Turco is a former All-Star netminder. And the superstar core up front, featuring Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa, is still intact.
All that said, life is different as the hunted and not the hunter.
Are the Flyers for real?
What a gutsy playoff run by the seventh-seeded Flyers. Clinching a berth on the season’s final day and running with it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.
But this league has seen Cinderella stories before, only to see them vanish. Edmonton, a No. 8 seed in 2006 for example, made the final. They haven’t made the playoffs since.
The Flyers, however, have a better nucleus than those Oilers. And if they stay healthy up front, they may have the right combination of veterans (Mike Richards, Jeff Carter and Daniel Briere) and youngsters (Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk) to stay on top.
Can Mike Modano bring the Red Wings back to prominence?
Detroit has been a threat to win the Stanley Cup for 20 years now, but that constant might be closing. Enter Modano - one of the game’s greatest American forwards ever, who left the comfort of Dallas for the pressure cooker of Detroit to see if his 40-year-old legs have any giddy-up left in them.
He’s not alone, of course, in the age department. Defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom is 40, and forwards Kris Draper (39), Tomas Holmstrom (37) and Todd Bertuzzi (35), aren’t far behind.
But the one constant with all of those players is talent. How much is left, though, is a question.