St. Louis Blues Showed Interest in Ilya Kovalchuk Before Trade

Jeremy Rutherford of St. Louis Today.com wrote in his February 2, 2010 morning skate that Blues President John Davidson had "legitimate interest" in trading for winger Ilya Kovalchuk before he was traded to New Jersey. Davidson is on record by stating, "We [The Blues] had been working at it for the better part of the week...We had great conversations with Atlanta. We talked to them about various thoughts and ideas and put (a trade proposal) together. It never came to fruition.”

Davidson further stated that, “When you make a deal like that, if it’s really a magnitude coming out of your bank account, you’ve got to try to make sure that he signs...And that (permission to discuss a contract extension before a trade) was never given to any team that was in the battle trying to get him. So we just couldn’t afford to go the extra mile.”

The St. Louis President reiterated that if the Blues were able at the tim eto succesfully negotiate an extension with Ilya Kovalchuk, they would have been more likely to match Atlanta's trade demands.