To find out if the St. Louis Blues have any interest in free-agent-to-be Ilya Kovalchuk, let's take a ride on the team's roller-coaster.

When the Atlanta Thrashers announced that Kovalchuk had rejected their latest contract offer last January, and that the team which drafted him No. 1 overall in 2001 was prepared to trade him, hockey fans throughout the league became giddy.

Why wouldn't they? In 594 games with Atlanta, Kovalchuk posted 328 goals and 615 points. And at 26, he was entering the prime of his career.

But for a couple of reasons, only a select few teams would be in the running for Kovalchuk. For starters, teams looking at him as rental player would have to pay the Thrashers a steep price. Secondly, those teams hoping to re-sign Kovalchuk this summer would pay an even steeper price.

Reports in Atlanta, which were later confirmed by GM Don Waddell, said that Kovalchuk turned down a 12-year, $101 million offer from the Thrashers. Part of that could be because he wanted to play elsewhere, but it's still money that could have went to his pocket.

A few teams were mentioned in the Kovalchuk Sweepstakes before the New Jersey Devils finally landed the superstar in a trade with the Thrashers. The Devils gave up defenseman Johnny Oduya, rookie forward Niclas Bergfors, junior prospect Patrice Cormier and a first-round draft pick this year.

The Blues, who have been building through the draft and fairly conversative when it comes to spending on free agents, didn't figure to be in on the Kovalchuk conversations. But after the deal with New Jersey was consummated, Blues President John Davidson acknowledged the team had legitimate interest.

"We had been working at it for the better part of the week," Davidson told the Post-Dispatch. "We had great conversations with Atlanta. We talked to them about various thoughts and ideas and put (a trade proposal) together. It never came to fruition."

 

There were two reasons the Blues didn't get to the finish line, and the reasons go hand in hand. Atlanta did not allow teams to negotiate a contract extension with Kovalchuk.

"When you make a deal like that, if it's really a magnitude coming out of your bank account, you've got to try to make sure that he signs, "Davidson said at the time. "And that (permission to discuss a contract extension before a trade) was never given to any team that was in the battle trying to get him. So we just couldn't afford to go the extra mile.

"It would have been a heck of a lot easier to give up a lot if you knew he was going to stay here, " he added. "But you can't give up a ton and then have Ilya not be here come July 1. You're just starting from behind again, as a franchise."

Some reports said that T.J. Oshie was the player Atlanta were asking for in return. A source countered that report, telling the Post-Dispatch that Alex Pietrangelo was the player of interest. At the time, Davidson would only say that the Thrashers were looking for "a piece or two that we weren't willing to give up."

 

Either way, Kovalchuk was a Devil and Blues fans were left wondering if the club was as heavily involved as Davidson made it sound. They were also wondering that should Kovalchuk hit the free-agent market, would the Blues still be interested?

 

In late March, I attended a meeting of the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association, in which Blues owner Dave Checketts was the keynote speaker. After the meeting, I asked Checketts about the upcoming offseason, and the Blues' plans in free agency.

 

"We'll be ambitious this offseason, I guarantee you that," Checketts said. "I think it may well be the most ambitious (since) we bought the team, because we're going to have real decisions to make and room in the salary cap."

Upon reading Checketts comments, many wondered if that meant the Blues would continue to pursue Kovalchuk, or another top scorer.

Not so fast.

In mid-April, just two weeks later, Davidson said: "We'd love to find that prolific goal scorer, but we're not in a position to spend $10 million a year ... we're not going to do it. We may as well get that out right now ... we're not going to do that.

 

"A, it's just too expensive, and B, the growth pattern of our club is going in the right direction. I know we had a terrible first half, but our second half, it got us back on track. We have to continue to grow like that, to put us into a position of, 'When is the right time to try to add something that's really going to make us a better club?'"

Well then, why did the Blues pursue Kovalchuk when Atlanta made him available? Were they planning to use him as a rental player and lose him this offseason? Doubtful. Were they willing in January to entertain the idea of extending Kovalchuk and something changed in those three months? Or were the Blues thinking they could get Kovalchuk cheaper than $8 or $10 million per season when they went after him in January?

All legitimate questions.

Kovalchuk had 10 goals and 27 points in 27 regular-season games and two goals and six points in five playoff games with New Jersey, but now it appears that he will hit the open market when the NHL free-agency winddow opens Thursday at 11 a.m. (St. Louis time).

Some national outlets have listed St. Louis as a possible destination for Kovalchuk, who turned 27 on April 15.

The Blues certainly have the cap room; the team has roughly $37 million committed to 18 players next season. That figure includes the qualifying offers sent out to the Blues' eight restricted free agents and will likely climb into the neighborhood of $45 million when those players are re-signed. The cap next season is expected to be $59.4 million.

However, as recently as Tuesday, Davidson downplayed the possibility of signing a goal-scorer in free agency when I asked him about any glaring holes on the roster. He noted that under Davis Payne, the Blues averaged 2.95 goals per game, after averaging 2.4 goals per game under Andy Murray.

"When you don't have a 40-goal scorer, everybody thinks you need scoring," Davidson said Tuesday. "You want to have that big scorer, but we're going to have to chip away at it. If we score like we did in the second half of last season, we should be in good shape."

The bottom line is that the signals have been mixed when the topic is adding a player of Kovalchuk's caliber. But it shouldn't go unnoticed that the Blues have half their roster unsigned heading into the start of free agency. At the very least, that gives the club plenty of financial flexibility to sign whoever it wants, and then come back and re-sign the players that it can afford. 

Reports suggest that Kovalchuk might not be able to command $8-10 million, so perhaps the Blues are keeping their options open and their fingers crossed.

Please raise your arms and let the safety bar come down and rest on your lap. The roller-coaster is just now starting.

JR