Heck, may as well start early…

from Helene Elliott of the Fabulous Forum,

The Kings continue to be the front-runners to land two-time 50-goal scorer Ilya Kovalchuk providing he doesn’t try to break the bank when the NHL’s free agency period opens Thursday at 9 a.m. Pacific time.

Yes, the Kings have talked before about landing impact players and have fallen short. Sometimes woefully short.

But this time they have not only the money and salary cap space but a strong selling point in a young, on-the-rise team that Kovalchuk could lead to Stanley Cup contention for years to come. There are few teams that have the resources or cap space that the Kings do, and from what team governor Tim Leiweke said last week as well as what agents for other players are hearing and seeing as they observe the market, the Kings appear determined to use their money and cap space to acquire the game-breaker they haven’t been able to develop themselves.

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