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NEWARK - Lou Lamoriello wasn’t about to let Brian Burke steal his thunder.
Just four days after watching Burke rock the hockey world with a pair of blockbuster trades that netted the Maple Leafs Dion Phaneuf and J-S Giguere, the wiley general manager of the New Jersey Devils found a way to trump those two huge moves, as monumental a task as that might have seemed.
In a shocking turn of events here in North Jersey Thursday, Lamoriello acquired one of the top superstars in the game in Ilya Kovalchuk, who instantly becomes the most talented forward in franchise history.
Agent Jay Grossman also said, via twitter, that defenceman Anssi Salmela also is headed to New Jersey as part of the monumental trade.
Heading back to the Atlanta Thrashers are defenceman Johnny Oduya, forwards Niclas Bergfors and Patrice Cormier, and a first round pick.
The teams also swapped second round selections.
Surely Thrashers GM Don Waddell could have received more. He certainly should have. No excuses.
Instead he ships arguably one of the Top 5 offensive forces in the sport to a one-time goal-starved Devils team that must now become one of the favourites in the east.
Kovalchuk is expected to be in the lineup Friday when Lamoriello’s Devils host Burke’s Maple Leafs at the Prudential Center, which brings up an interesting point.
The two teams met in this same venue a week ago, with the Devils posting a 5-4 overtime victory.
At that time, had you suggested that their next meeting at the Prudential Center would feature Dion Phaneuf, J-S Giguere and Ilya Kovalchuk, you would have been called “crazy.”
Crazy as a fox, as it turns out.
In a league where blockbuster trades have almost become as rare as bench-clearing brawls, Burke and Lamoriello, two men whose relationship dates back more than three decades, certainly have found a way to steal the thunder from the upcoming Olympics this week.
Earlier this week, Burke, who played for Lamoriello at Providence College in the 1970s, explained how difficult it was to make big trades in the salary cap era. In a conference call Thursday night, Lamoriello agreed.
“It is difficult for various reasons, cap space being a major factor among them,” Lamoriello said. “Timing is too. Who knows if we could have done this last week or next week. But this week the timing was right.”
Lamoriello was asked if he planned to re-sign Kovalchuk, a high profile rent-a-player who will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
“I haven’t even thought about that,” Lamoriello said, adding that “we identified a need that he fits.