Kovalchuk, and the Toronto Blue Jays

After 19 days of deliberation and indecision, today, Ilya Kovalchuk decided to resign with the New Jersey Devils. For 17 seasons. Well at least he made it interesting.

The good part about this is Ilya didn't need a one hour long televised special to inform the public of this monumental moment in history. But much like the Lebron decision, this reeks.

The deal works out to 102 million over 17 seasons but the balk of the deal is paid over nine seasons. 99 million dollars will be paid out in the first nine seasons, while Kovalchuk will be earning a whopping 550k in the last five seasons.

Something tells me he won't be finishing out this contract.

Kovalchuk will be making six million in the first two seasons but then in the 2012/13 season it spikes to a shocking eleven and half million over the next five seasons! This puts the pressure to perform on not only Kovalchuk but the entire Devils franchise. If they get ousted in the first two rounds in the next two seasons and Kovalchuk no shows, like he always does, then this may be the biggest over payment in the NHL right now.( Yes Oiler fans, even bigger than Horcoff. He's gonna have a comeback season, just you watch.)

Back to Kovalchuk. Nobody has scored more goals since the lockout than Ilya Kovalchuk. The man is a true sniper. His snap shot is deadly and his size and speed make it so tough for opposing d-men to stop him. Unfortunately none of these skills have been seen in the playoffs yet. The Devils have a new building and a new superstar to fill those seats. throw in Volchenkov with Parise, Zajac, Arnott, and Elias and you're doing alright.

One more thing though. The Devil's cap hit sits at 61,941,666 (as per cap geek), a good 1.8 million dollars over. So somebody needs to be moved. Look for the Devils to unload some bodies here in the future. I know it sounds crazy but if Elias is willing to move and the Devils, who badly need a puck moving D-man, can package and coerce Brian Burke into a deal with Toronto for Kaberle, then Lamoriello will look like a genius. (if not, take Souray, Omark and Cogliano and we'll take Elias and Langenbrunner off your hands. Hemsky and Elias could make a good duo and Langenbrunner would be a UFA after one season. Just saying.)

Switching Sports!

The Toronto Blue Jays swapped shortstops with the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday, sending Alex Gonzalez along with two minor leaguers to the Braves for reportedly disgruntled shortstop Yanel Escobar and 25-year-old pitcher Jo-Jo Reyes. At first I thought the Jays were getting hosed and hey with Gregg choking in the 10th inning tonight against the Royals, it looks like nothing has changed for the Jays. Well more so for Gregg

Escobar, on the other hand, hit a grand-slam yesterday and went 2-4 with two RBI's and hitting an average of .471 tonight in the Jays' loss to the Royals.

So far so good.

I like the Jays, I always have. We all remember watching Joe Carter jump around the bases that night, even out here in Alberta, we remember that. It was a classic moment and it makes me glad that my father forced me to watch sports as a child. I'm off topic, the point is, is I want to see the Jays return to the playoffs! It seems impossible when the Red Sox , Yankees and Rays are sharing your division, i know, but the Rays used to be terrible and now they're led by an excellent group of young talent and look how good they have become.

I hope Alex Anthropoulos understands that the only way you can beat the Yankees and the Red Sox is by building up the farm and developing your talent. I like bringing in guys like Escobar and Reyes at ages of 27 and 26. That's prefect! If Escobar can play the way he did last season with Braves then the deal is a steal. But that's a big if. I don't know a lot about the prospects they sent away but if you're Anthropoulus, you kind of hope they turn out to be duds. Nobody wants to see someone fail, well some people do, but in this case it would be nice to see the Jays be on the winning side of a trade for a change. Take no prisoners! This is baseball! And there's no crying in baseball!