All eyes were on Ilya Kovalchuk as of late Friday, when rumors of a new suitor emerged from Long Island. New York Islanders general manager Garth Snow confirmed to Newsday that his team is “in” on discussions for the 27-year-old Russian sniper. The Los Angeles Times also reported that Snow is interested, at a price of $100 million over 10 seasons.

 

The Islanders have $21.3 million of salary-cap space, making them one of few teams that can afford the services of Kovalchuk. The Los Angeles Kings, believed to be the front-runners since free agency began at 9 a.m. Thursday, can also sneak Kovalchuk in under the cap at $10 million a season. But that would leave general manager Dean Lombardi with approximately $7.5 million to spend on six players next season and force the normally conservative-spending Kings to commit to a $10 million cap hit for the next decade.

 

Already this year Kovalchuk has turned down the Atlanta Thrashers’ contract offers of 12 years and $101 million, and seven years and $70 million, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. If the Kings decide Kovalchuk is out of their price range, they could try to obtain a top-six winger through a trade. Simon Gagne was mentioned as a possibility by CSN Philadelphia.

 

The free-agent talent pool for defensemen was deeper, with most of the activity centering in the Atlantic. The New Jersey Devils agreed to terms Thursday with Anton Volchenkov (six years, $28.5 million) and Henrik Tallinder (four years, $13.5 million). The Pittsburgh Penguins lost Sergei Gonchar to the Ottawa Senators, but invested in former Devil Paul Martin (five years, $25 million) and former Coyote Zbynek Michalek (five years, $20 million). The Vancouver Canucks, less than a week after trading for veteran blue-liner Keith Ballard, agreed to terms with Dan Hamhuis (six years, $27 million).

 

As eye-popping as some of those numbers are, however, none turned as many heads around the league as the maneuverings of Calgary Flames general manager Darryl Sutter.

 

Sutter brought former Flames Olli Jokinen and Alex Tanguay back to Calgary on Thursday. Jokinen was traded to the New York Rangers on Feb. 1 along with Brandon Prust for Christopher Higgins and Ales Kotalik. The Flames waived Kotalik and his $3 million salary earlier in the week. Both Jokinen and Tanguay are coming off disappointing seasons, and their signings were widely panned.

 

There were more surprises among the league’s free-agent goaltenders. Arguably the two best, Evgeni Nabokov and Marty Turco, were still unemployed as of Friday night. Meanwhile, Dan Ellis (Tampa Bay), Chris Mason (Atlanta), Alex Auld (Montreal), Johan Hedberg (New Jersey) and Antero Niittymaki (San Jose) all found new jobs.

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