Artemi Panarin is in the last year of his deal, as everyone knows, but with Columbus looking like a real contender in the Metro right now, why the fuck would the get rid of Bread Man? Oh yeah, that’s right, he wants to “come out to the coast.” Now, you can’t trade away a prolific scorer without getting one in return if you plan on maintaining such a high level of play, right?
That’s where Ilya Kovalchuk comes.
I get there’s a lot of bullshit to maneuver around, most importantly Kovy’s no-move clause, but this move makes SOOOOO much sense. Panarin get’s to leave and go to Cali, which is one of the locations rumored to be on his list of landing spots (although it could only be for the year), LA gets a little further out of their hell of a cap situation, and Kovy gets to be the go-to scorer on a team with Cup aspirations.
Let’s also not forget that fellow Rusky and buddy (who knows if that’s true) Sergei Bobrovsky is there too. This is a match made in heaven.