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Q: I read somewhere that Atlanta is having trouble signing Ilya Kovalchuk. If the Pens had any interest in him, even just for a playoff run, do they have the cap space to pay him and the resources (draft picks, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton> players) to make a reasonable offer for him?

Joe Berret, Springfield, Va.

MOLINARI: Kovalchuk is one of the game's most lethal goal-scorers, and re-signing him is the top priority for Thrashers general manager Don Waddell. Kovalchuk insists he wants to stay in Atlanta, too, so you might think that the sides would be able to reach an agreement eventually.

The gap still seems to be pretty great, however -- there have been reports that Kovalchuk is seeking a 10-year deal worth 20 percent of the team's annual salary-cap space, the maximum allowed by the league's collective bargaining agreement -- and both sides have made rather ominous comments about the negotiations lately.

If Waddell concludes that he can't afford to keep Kovalchuk, it's guaranteed that he'll put him on the market before the March 3 trade deadline, because losing him with no return when he comes an unrestricted free agent in July would be devastating for the franchise. And if he is offered to other clubs, there should be no shortage of teams that express strong interest -- even though giving him as much money as he's seeking could make it very difficult to assemble, and maintain, a quality group around him.

Odds are that no team, including the Penguins, would be interested in Kovalchuk strictly as a rental, because Atlanta's asking price almost certainly would be much higher than anyone would be willing to pay for a guy who would be with his new team only for the stretch drive and playoffs. More likely is that if Kovalchuk goes on the trading block, teams thinking about trading for him will seek permission to speak with his agent, Jay Grossman, about exactly what it would take to sign him. (It could be that Kovalchuk would adjust his demands somewhat if he has a chance to go to a team with which he would like to play.)

Unless Penguins general manager Ray Shero decides to completely overhaul his roster -- and there's no reason at this time to think that he's interested in doing so, or that he should be -- the Penguins would not be willing to part with the assets required to land Kovalchuk, or have the salary-cap space to accommodate his current contract (which is worth $7.5 million in 2009-10), let alone the one he is seeking.

There is an obvious appeal to having Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin feeding pucks to a guy like Kovalchuk, whose goal-scoring prowess invites comparison to that of Alex Ovechkin, but in the salary-cap era, the only chance for Kovalchuk and one of those guys to be teammates would be in a fantasy league. (Except, of course, for national-team competitions such as the Olympics, where Kovalchuk might well end up on a line with Malkin and Ovechkin.)

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