PuckDaddy- Shero glanced down at the text message. Someone was inquiring about a rumor they had heard: That Shero, the Devils’ general manager, had been offered a first-round draft pick from the New York Rangers in exchange for Kovalchuk, and that Shero turned them down.
“That was a lie,” said Shero on Thursday. “I never turned down a first-round pick. I never turned down a seventh-round pick. I never turned down anything. Why? It’s really simple: There was nothing to turn down.” “It wasn’t my job to negotiate a contract with Kovalchuk,” said Shero, “and I can’t trade the guy unless he’s got a deal somewhere.” As July 1 approached, Kovalchuk didn’t have a concrete offer from another team. But Grossman had enough interest from three teams to take these potential matches back to Shero in the hopes that they could transition from contractual discussions to the compensation talks. Shero reached out to all three in the last week. All three determined they weren’t in on Kovalchuk. One team was a definite “no.” Another team had something cooking with Grossman, but never circled back to Shero. The last team traded a few text messages with Shero, before informing the Devils general manager that there were other areas of need they wanted to address ahead of adding Kovalchuk. They were going to circle back with Grossman, but Shero said they never did. So the market for Kovalchuk had become the Sahara. “I was never presented a deal,” Shero said. “Get a contract with the team. Then that general manager calls New Jersey. That’s all that had to happen. And it never did,” said Shero. “So that’s the end of the story.” --------- Alternate Headline: 'HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA' Picture it this way, and - please - take a deep breath prior. Ilya Kovalchuk made himself available for auction to the entire NHL, didn't get one single professional team to raise their proverbial paddle, and had to get bought back by the "original seller" (the KHL) to save face. Now, should we be absolutely stunned that a 34 year old flight risk that is four years removed from the highest level of hockey and was reported asking for a long(ish) term deal at a cap hit that would make the most open minded of General Manager choke on their chicken salad didn't garner interest? Probably not. Does the wacky, desperate shit that teams tend to do in hopes of improving their roster during free agency leave me a bit a surprised that the entire NHL treated Ilya Kovalchuk's outcasted ass like he was the smelly kid in class? Slightly, but boy is it nothing shot of hilarious that they did. The news that Ilya Kovalchuk had to head back to the homeland with his tail between his legs makes me smile equally as obnoxiously as him potentially getting shipped anywhere stateside for a second round pick. You can me petty or spiteful, but knowing that Ray Shero was sitting on his hands because the rest of his peers were treating a selfish, greedy, overly presumptuous athlete like they walked in on him with his thumb in his ass during office hours brings me an endless amount of joy. It would have been delightful to receive some reparations for the player that acted like a middle schooler at sleep away camp by using "homesickness" as an excuse to go swim in a pool full of rubles in Eastern Europe. However, getting to watch one of the most self centered athletes in all of sports get humbled - if only temporarily - is quite the fucking consolation prize. I said yesterday that I would rather New Jersey Devils miss out on a middling asset than be made to look like assholes, and little did I know that the person who should really feel like an asshole is the 400 goal scorer that couldn't even achieve asset status. Either way, the ongoing, tumultuous "relationship" between Ilya Kovalchuk and his former team has finally faded to black, and - amazingly - it's not the organization that gave him a 15 year fucking contract that is staring off into space while sitting alone at the negotiating table.
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FTW- The Utah Jazz traded forward Trey Lyles and the No. 24 overall pick to the Denver Nuggets for the No. 13 pick on the night of the 2017 NBA Draft. All of two years ago, the Jazz had drafted Lyles 12th overall, so the move spoke volumes about Utah’s opinion of the 21-year-old. Here’s Lyles’ opinion of the Jazz now, upon news that All-Star forward Gordon Hayward was leaving for the Boston Celtics: I think we all owe Trey Lyles a quick congratulations. It may have taken him a couple of cringeworthy seasons of abject failure, but he finally did something newsworthy. Unfortunately it came after he sucked his way into getting packaged for a pick that was lower than the one he was originally selected with and had nothing to do with him playing proficient basketball, but free pub is free pub. At least now we all know the name of the guy selected 12th overall in 2015 NBA Draft, and I can't say that his average of collective 6 PPG on 38% shooting was going to have me committing him to memory. Generally, I don't have a problem with blaming others for your own flaws, but if you are going to do so on a public platform then you might want to have a better case for yourself than Trey Lyles did. If you want to harbor resentment as a way to feel better about yourself then I can definitely relate. That resentment should probably just be slightly more deserved than - oh, I don't know - completely unwarranted if you're a professional athlete that's putting it on the internet. I don't want to tell the player who has undergone nothing short of a disastrous start to his career how to live his life, but it might be best for him to keep a lower profile until he starts contributing to something other than his own online demise. That guy whose departure he just gleefully celebrated was likely happy to see him go when he got sent to Denver, and that should concern him more than the struggles of his former team (that had just cause in moving him) delight him. Well, at least if he's still interested in turning into a useful NBA player someday, because right now there is at least one matter that's worth more of a laugh than the frustrations of the Utah Jazz, and it's not not the stat line of their 2015 first round pick. Gordon Hayward's Agent Says His Client Was Leaning Towards Staying In Utah As Late As Monday Night7/6/2017 LBS- Mark Bartelstein joined Ryen Russillo on ESPN Radio Wednesday to talk about the process by which Hayward chose the Celtics in free agency. According to what Bartelstein told Russillo, Hayward was leaning towards re-signing with the Jazz as of Monday night following his visit with the team.
“He was shaken because now he was back thinking, ‘I can’t leave Utah,'” Bartelstein said of Hayward’s mindset following the meeting. “We were on the phone til really late on Monday night and he was really torn on what he wanted to do. He was leaning towards staying with Utah. But he was exhausted, so I said ‘go to bed, wake up in the morning.'” Bartelstein says that after the two talked in the morning, he got the sense Hayward was back to wanting to play for the Celtics. Then all craziness broke loose when the news was leaked earlier than expected, leading Bartelstein to issue multiple denials until the announcement was made in the fashion they wanted. ------ There's not a doubt in my mind that the decision to join the Boston Celtics was a difficult for Gordon Hayward to make. I'm sure he felt a very real sense of kinship to the organization that drafted him, and the city that embraced him as their own. I'm just not sure I can say the same about his agent who either doesn't know how breakups work, or he literally wants Jazz fans to feel as much pain as humanly possible. I mean, Mark Bartelstein literally just did the equivalent of taking all the hard liquor that people in Utah aren't drinking and pouring it directly into their open wounds with a public statement that roughly translates to.... "Hey guys, your beloved star player was basically one postponed nap away from making your 'Stayward' billboards a reality and keeping whatever slim championships aspirations you had alive. So close...better luck next time!" Jazz fans that just became exponentially less likely to come anywhere close to celebrating anything in the foreseeable future don't need the "comfort" of knowing they lost the race by a snore. They need somewhere to blindly direct their hate after losing the race, and what better target than their former hero that exercised his God-given right to free agency? You know what someone doesn't want to hear immediately after you ripped their heart out of their chest? That you still love them and genuinely envisioned a future with them just 12 hours prior. Talk about mixed fucking signals. The Utah faithful would have a much better chance of sleeping off the disappointment if they didn't think that Gordon Hayward literally slept off a potential 4-5 year commitment to the only professional sports team they can call their own. Especially since the 2,000+ word farewell letter that was posted shortly afterward is proof positive that he didn't.
You know what's crazier than the fact that Ilya Kovalchuk, after yet another summer of nauseating unnecessary deliberation, decided to run from a return to the states on the most American day of the year? The fact that I can't place it outside the realm of possibility that he set the whole goddamn thing up as an epic troll job to the NHL that was designed at getting the KHL to streamline (almost literally) their entire net worth to his bank account. Obviously I'm being (at least mildly) facetious. However, I think we can all agree that there truly isn't any amount of two-faced selfishness and greed that can be out past the guy that fled the country 3 years into a 15 year deal only to attempt returning four years older thinking he was worthy of the nearly the same exact cap hit...
As much as I wanted the Devils to recoup something in exchange for what was a devastatingly costly contract even before it went unfulfilled, I'm glad that this soap opera has finally reached a series finale that was more anticipated than the day 'The Big Bang Theory' gets taken behind the proverbial barn and mercifully shot in the head. Not just because I'm tired of hearing about a 34 year old Russian that's more fickle than a teenage girl trying to stay under budget in her like totally favorite store in the mall, but because the concept of being a Kovalchuk apologist can officially rot in pieces. I don't care if his departure ultimately saved the New Jersey Devils from salary cap purgatory, because this awfully familiar "will he, won't he" routine that reached an eerily similar conclusion is proof positive that the person behind it is incapable of doing anyone any favors. A 3 year, 6.5 million per demand from someone that's been playing in a league that's less mindful of it's players than one that encourages you to drink beer in the locker room prior to games? That's about as valuable in an exchange as the rubles he's currently being paid with.
Hell, even if the previous report that Ray Shero enabled or encouraged his decision by playing hardball is true, I'm still putting the onus on the entitled mercenary that's never felt loyalty to anyone but himself. If that means I value years of spite over whatever steaming piles of dog shit teams were willing to offer to take on a hefty long term deal for a relatively unknown quantity then so be it. Personally, I think the right to tell Ilya Kovalchuk to go fuck himself and letting him become someone else's incredibly high maintenance problem was more important to the Devils' organization and their fans than getting bent over the barrel and being forcefully fucked into accepting a 4th round pick for him. I'd rather this franchise miss out on a middling asset than yet again be made to look like assholes by the guy that has hammered and sickled home the message that he's insufferable narcissistic. Especially since it allows my unbridled hate for him to go uncompromised. |
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