I don’t know about Kovalchuk specifically, but certainly Chiarelli must have an eye to the deadline with all the picks he’s acquired. It’s no guarantee that the Bruins will need anyone, but it’s nice to have the insurance that they can get someone if necessary.

There are 40 days left post-deadline, and something like 193 days in the season, so whoever it is we do get (assuming Chiarelli doesn’t trade up for top picks instead), we’d have to pay about 21% of their cap hit. Kovalchuk’s cap hit is – as mentioned – 6,389,300.

So 6,389,300*0.21= 1,341,753. According to capgeek.com, the Bruins have about 1,131,668 in cap space going into the season, meaning Ilya puts the Bruins 1,341,753-1,131,668=210,085 over the cap at that point. That amount stretched out to a full year (using the %21 figure) means the Bruins would need to dump about a million (over the year) to shoehorn in Kovalchuk.

Here’s a list of all the free agents as of next summer.

NOTE: All the stuff above may be completely fraudulent, I haven’t read the CBA.

My guess is that the Thrashers will want roster players in addition to picks to satisfy their fan base. Since the Bruins have absolutely 0 chance of signing Kovalchuk after the season, my guess is the glut of draft picks will be flipped in the offseason to acquire inexpensive journeymen (in the Mike Grier/Mark Parrish mold) to round out the roster after re-signing Lucic, Rask, and possibly Wheeler. More than a few guys (Kobasew, Recchi, Savard, Morris, Ference) won’t be on the B’s next year, and we’ll be pretty close to the cap, so getting warm bodies to fill the roster is going to be more of a priority than anything.

Nobody – players, fans, front office, wants a repeat of Kessel happening next summer.