Early yesterday, a Russian website, Sports.life.ru, broke a story claiming that Ilya Kovalchuk’s agent, Yury Nikolaev, told a source that he and Kovalchuk had received offers from three NHL teams willing to acquire the 27 year old sniper. Along with the Colorado Avalance and Los Angeles Kings, the Flyers were one of the three clubs rumored to have an offer on the table.

In regards to the report, today Yury Nikolaev claimed he “never said this.”

It’s probably safe to put this rumor to bed for good, seeing as the LA Kings were actually the only team still in the running for Kovalchuk’s services at the time. Earlier yesterday, Colorado pulled from the race.

A weird story to begin with, seeing as the Flyers have absolutely zero cap maneuverability at this moment in time.

Anyway, carry on with your 4th of July. There won’t be a puck hogging, defenseless Russian in Philadelphia anytime soon. We still have Shelley, though!

A frustrating and confusing off-season just got a little bit more odd. The trade rumors are getting difficult to keep track of.

While many sources are claiming that Ilya Kovalchuk is on Long Island today in New York, fine tuning his alleged deal with the Islanders, a Russian website has posted an article claiming that the Flyers are among three teams interested in acquiring the prized sniper. Kovalchuk’s agent, Yuri Nikolayev, is said to be the source behind this information, making it all the more credible. Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Colorado are all said to be in negotiations with Nikolayey and Kovalchuk.

But this makes absolutely zero sense. Just yesterday, the Flyers had asked Simon Gagne to waive his NTC so they could potentially move his salary to re-sign players and make a run at a free agent goaltender. Today, they’re targeting a $7.5-10 million forward.

The Flyers would have to move a lot more to even consider acquiring Kovalchuk.

As of now, it looks like the deal with the Islanders is a sure thing. Doesn’t make this any less odd.

Just thought I’d take a few minutes to shoot out some of the latest Gagne rumors that are circulating around the hockey blogosphere.

There aren’t many and they probably aren’t really credible, but they’ve been posted around multiple sources by people who typically know what they’re talking about.

Several sources are claiming that the Flyers and the Leafs are talking about a Gagne for Giguere trade. I don’t like this, obviously. Giguere is seemingly past his time, which is probably why the Leafs are trying to unload him. He hasn’t been the same since his run with the Ducks. Not to mention the fact that seeing Gagne in Leaf Blue would make even the most casual of Flyers fans vomit all over themselves.

Next is the Gagne to LA rumors. There have been plenty of rumors floating around suggesting that not just Gagne, but Gagne, and several other players would be sent to LA for a return of Bernier, Brown, and Simmonds. While anyone would probably kill to have those three on their team, it doesn’t make sense from a Flyers stand point. In terms of salary cap, it would be nearly impossible to fit them here unless you’re sending away Jeff Carter and/or Scott Hartnell along with Gagne in a package deal, which Paul Holmgren has stressed time and time again that he isn’t doing. There’s also the fact that the Flyers seem to be confident in their goalie prospects, which is why they’re desperately searching for a dinosaur to mind the pipes for the next few years. Adding Bernier would be great. Kid’s a great goalie and has tons of potential waiting to be unleashed, but if the Flyers are as heavily dedicated to their goalie prospects as they say they are, I wouldn’t expect much. Then again, they’re trying to trade Simon Gagne. Slinging the word “dedication” around is apparently a joke.

Speaking of goalies, jokes, and dinosaurs, the final rumor I’m going to mention is that this entire ordeal is so the Flyers can wipe Gagne’s $5 million cap hit and make a better offer to UFA goaltender Marty Turco. If you’ve been a reader of the site for awhile now, you can go back to February when I said that trading for Marty Turco would be a devastatingly huge mistake. Turco is on the back-end of his career, he’s old, and he’s not the Marty Turco that I grew up watching any longer. Point being, this is stupid. Don’t do it Homer. Keep Gagne, please.

That’s it for tonight. I’m sure there will be plenty more to report with over the weekend, but for now I want to take my mind off of this.

Marty Turco is 34 years of age and is clearly on the downswing of his career. It’s clear that Turco still has the ability to be an effective goalie in the NHL, but he has Marty Biron syndrome. Turco lets in some terribly soft goals and doesn’t have the best positioning I’ve ever seen. He’s become disliked in Dallas and fans are ready to move on from the Turco era.

Nick Kypreos of Rogers’ SportsNet first broke the news of Philadelphia being interested in Turco’s services on Twitter:

Dallas/Atlanta still waiting for trade call to complete Kari Lehtonen deal. Dallas/ Philly talks ongoing for Marty Turco.

On the other hand, you have TSN’s Bob McKenzie who is reporting that the Flyers aren’t as interested in Turco as the Chicago Blackhawks are.

Whichever way you look at it, this is a terrible idea. Why?

Marty Turco comes with a $5.7 million cap hit which is absolutely insane for a goalie of his skill level. He doesn’t deserve that kind of money and he flat out will not be able to fit here unless the Flyers move a big money maker. Namely, Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell, Simon Gagne, or Jeff Carter. Briere and Gagne have NTC’s, and Jeff Carter has already been deemed untouchable by Paul Holmgren.

In order for this to work, the Flyers would have to do several things that they’d end up regretting, one of which includes trading for a 34 year old goalie who can barely play anymore. That, and the Flyers don’t need a goalie.

Eklund has been going rumor crazy as of late saying that there are several big name hockey markets in on the Kovalchuk deal, and a select few “mystery teams”. That’s probably just Eklund being a downright retard, as usual, but we can confirm that the Flyers are one of the big market teams in the deal. The Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, Calgary Flames, New Jersey Devils, Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers are teams suspected to be involved in the trade talks for the Russian sniper.

If the Flyers were to be involved in a deal for Kovalchuk, they’d have to trade a lot of talent and salary; about $6.5 million worth. Names that are being thrown around the hockey world are Danny Briere, Simon Gagne, Claude Giroux, James Van Riemsdyk, Jeff Carter (even though Homer’s already said he wouldn’t be moved), Scott Hartnell, Braydon Coburn, and Matt Carle on top of some other prospects and players from the Phantoms. Briere, Gagne, and Hartnell all have no movement clauses, so they would have to waive those clauses in order for any of this to come to fruition, and there haven’t even been rumors of Paul Holmgren asking any of them to do so.

I, personally, wouldn’t want to see Simon Gagne waive his no trade clause and be sent away to a terrible hockey market such as Atlanta. It’d be terrible to see a guy who’s been a Flyer his whole career just shoved away like that. Gagne’s always been my favorite hockey player, but if I had to send him away along with one of Carle/Coburn, I’d do it in a second. Gagne wouldn’t do that, though. His family is growing and developing here in Philadelphia, and he’s on record a number of times saying he doesn’t want to leave.

Kovalchuk would likely be acquired as a rental player since it’s rumored that he’s going to be asking for anywhere between $9-9.5 million next season, but that could just be Waddell trying to up his value. NHL.com broke a story today that states Kovalchuk turned down, what would have been, the biggest contract given to any impending NHL free agent player ever.

Waddell said the club offered Kovalchuk a 12-year, $101 million deal, but it was rejected. Waddell said it would have been the highest contract ever signed by an impending free agent in NHL history.

In a nutshell: While it’d be great to have a guy of Kovy’s offensive capabilities on your team, he is too much of a defensive liability on the ice. And for as much money as he wants, it just wouldn’t be worth giving away your future stars for someone who may not even get you to a Cup final. Hockey is a team game made not of one player.

At this moment, it’s hard to say what’s going to happen. Yesterday, Kovalchuk was told that he would indeed be moved within the coming hours or days, but nothing has developed since then. Is Don Waddell asking too much for Kovalchuk? Is Kovalchuk being a greedy NHL player, or do you think he’ll take a paycut just to play in a big hockey market? What do you think the Flyers should/will do? Leave us your opinions in a comment down below. It’ll be good to get some discussion going on here!

According to ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun, Paul Holmgren has put all of the Jeff Carter rumor buzz to rest.

“We’re not trading Jeff Carter,” Philadelphia Flyers GM Paul Holmgren told ESPN.com on Saturday.

The 25-year-old forward is earning $5 million this season and $5.5 million in 2010-11, the last year of his deal. He’s basically been a point-a-game player for two years now, and that’s good production for his salary.

But when the Flyers struggled in the opening three months of the season, no player had his name dragged through the trade rumor mill more than Carter.

“I don’t know where all these rumors are coming from,” said Holmgren. “We are not trading him, I can tell you that.”

Jeff Carter’s production this year, compared to last, is painful to look at. It’s clear that he is not the same confident player he was last year, and since opposing teams have figured out his style of play, they have been shutting him down easily.

It’s been rumored that Carter’s name was the lead name in a trade proposed to Philadelphia by Montreal which would send the Flyers goaltender Jaroslav Halak. However, with the strong play of Michael Leighton and Ray Emery’s progressing health, as well as veteran back-up Brian Boucher, all of those rumors just seem ridiculous at best. Jeff Carter’s name has also been included in Ilya Kovalchuk talks, but those have since simmered down.

Anyway, Jeff Carter isn’t going anywhere, so don’t believe anything you read.