Are the Flyers still in on Kovy?

The Flyers are relentlessly shopping veteran winger Simon Gagne, while UFA winger Ilya Kovalchuk shops himself around the league. Report came out last week that the Flyers had offered Kovy a $7M contract recently. All thoughts were that Kovy turned this down and had narrowed his options to the LA Kings and New Jersey Devils.

Who's to say that offer still isn't on the table?

-Flyers-

The Flyers are $2.5M over the cap right now, Gagne when or if moved will mean the Flyers would be $3.25M under the cap. Still out of the Kovy range. Then if one of their defenseman were to be moved, say Meszaros who is set to make $4M next season. The Flyers would have $7.25M to deal with. These players can all be variables however.

With Gagne moved the Flyers will have Hartnell and van Riemsdyk as their possible two top Left Wingers. Neither them are "Top Line" guys. Unless Carter or Richards moves to the Wing, the Flyers are going to need a new Left Winger to play aside Richards.

-Kovalchuk-

Onto Kovy's side of things. Kovalchuk and Agent Jay Grossman flew out to Los Angeles this week to meet up and talk dollar signs. Nothing came out of the meetings but the talks are certainly not dead between the two sides.

The Kings are said to be the most interested in Simon Gagne's services, however are also the front runners for Kovalchuk. If Kovalchuk wanted whole-heartedly to play for the Kings a contract would have been signed.

Kovy, if out of wanting to play for the Flyers, may have tried to loss the Kings' interest in him hoping that it would lead to them trading for Simon Gagne. Thus making room for Kovy in Philly's roster wise and freeing up some cap space.

-Russian Relation-

Russian forward Nikolai Zherdev was signed early last week and is set to play his first year back in the NHL after playing a season in the KHL. The Flyers don't have any Russian players to help him feel more comfortable in Philly. The closest the Flyers have to a Russian is Slovakian born Andrej Meszaros.

In locking up Kovalchuk the Flyers could see Nikolai Zherdev blossom into an offensive force. For the most part, Nikolai never had a chance to play with a fellow Russian scorer in his NHL career, same with Kovalchuk. These two together could spark Zherdev's playmaking ability and Kovalchuk's amazing scoring talent just due to comfortablity and chemistry.

Keep an eye out Philadelphia, there could be a Russian invasion coming.