Kovalchuk's a Devil, But Who are the New Thrashers?

When the Thrashers sent Ilya Kovalchuk to the Devils on Thursday, a lot of people were quick to call it robbery on the Devils' part. But before we jump on Atlanta general manager Don Waddell, let’s look at who exactly the Thrashers received in return.

Johnny Oduya

Oduya is the only new Thrasher with more than one NHL season under his belt. Though he’s a serviceable defenseman, it’s always tough to judge Devils blueliners before they leave the defense-friendly New Jersey system (and Martin Brodeur). The 28-year-old Swede is a career +44 in his fourth NHL season. He’ll help develop a young Thrashers defense that includes first-round picks Zach Bogosian and Boris Valabik, but down the road he may be the least valuable of Atlanta’s acquisitions.

New Jersey shipping out Oduya's 3 year, $10.5 million contract also frees up cap space to re-sign Kovalchuk.

Niclas Bergfors

The Devils drafted Bergfors 23rd overall in 2005, but he hasn’t developed as they hoped. He spent four seasons in AHL limbo, never potting more than 22 goals in a year. Nonetheless, he finally made the Devils full-time this year and scored a respectable 13 goals before the trade. Still only 22 years old, he still has time to evolve into the top-line scorer the Thrashers hope they are receiving.

Patrice Cormier

The Devils picked Cormier in the second round of the draft two years ago, hoping he’d become a big, bruising, Todd Bertuzzi-esque power forward. Three weeks ago, though, Cormier laid a vicious elbow on Mikael Tam in a junior league game, and New Jersey was quick to cut ties with the 19-year-old. It was his third blatant elbow in two months. Atlanta takes on damaged goods and hopes the kid straightens himself out before he finds himself out of hockey.

New Jersey’s 1st and 2nd round picks in 2010

Assuming New Jersey continues playing as well as it has, the picks will be late in each round. Still, New Jersey develops its team through the draft as well as anybody, nabbing Zach Parise and Travis Zajac, notably, in the first round recently. Parting with, if you count Bergfors, three first-rounders is a bit of a change-up for the franchise. Meanwhile, the Thrashers grab more picks, but can they take the time to draft and develop players when they don’t have any recognizable face on the team to market to its small fanbase?

- - -

Atlanta shipped out Kovalchuk as soon as it gave up on signing him, as I assumed in an earlier post. Here’s part of Thursday’s media release:

"During the process, Kovy affirmed his desire to be a Thrasher for life. We've spent several months exploring scenarios with Kovy and his agent to reach a mutually beneficial agreement, and offered many lucrative packages in an attempt to meet his financial objectives. Unfortunately, we've reached an impasse and at this point he has declined all of our proposals and we can't reasonably go any higher. Ultimately, we offered Kovy more than $101 million over 12 years, which would have been the highest contract signed by an impending unrestricted free agent in the history of the league.”

We all know what Atlanta gave up—check out the puck movement on the game-tying goal against Toronto yesterday—but only time will tell who really won this deal.