No Kovalchuk for the Edmonton Oilers

According to Elliotte Friedman’s 31 Thoughts that went up today over at Sportsnet, the Edmonton Oilers approached free agent Ilya Kovalchuk about joining the squad for the upcoming year. Unfortunately, the dreams of McNugelchuk just aren’t meant to be as Friedman crushed our dreams before they ever really got a chance to get going.

A while back, Tyler Yaremchuk wrote an article about how the Oilers should pursue Ilya Kovalchuk as a means to boost their scoring on the wings. In theory, it was a good idea considering the Oilers wouldn’t have had to give up anything but money to make it happen and it certainly would have helped add some scoring to the roster but, I guess, it’s just not meant to be.

According to Friedman, the Oilers approached the sniper to see if there was a fit there but it didn’t go beyond that. While he didn’t mention which side was against the idea, I’m going to assume that it’s Kovalchuk that’s looking for greener grass as the Oilers are gagging for scoring wingers and having him on a short-term deal would certainly have filled a hole on the roster. That said, maybe Kovalchuk was into the idea but the Oilers don’t have the cap space to make it work as you’d have to assume that there will be plenty of suitors for the former Thrasher and Devil.

At the end of the day, missing out on Kovalchuk isn’t even close to the end of the world but it does eliminate one potential fix for their depth on the wing. Oh well, such is life. Onward and upward. Who’s next on the scoring winger target list?