Alexei Kovalev As Good As Gone?

Man, does this early offseason suck or what? I’ve got almost nothing to write about but whether or not Alex freakin’ Kovalev will return to the team next season. So, will Kovalev return? This may be a better question: Does anybody care? I mean, the 38-year-old clearly has next to nothing left in the tank. He can still stickhandle with the best of them, but he’s lost his legs entirely. He wouldn’t be able to keep up with either Crosby or Malkin, and with about $6 million to spend on four rostered players, Kovalev simply just doesn’t fit this team’s needs. While he’ll certainly take a salary cut from the $5 million he made in 2010, he’ll still command around $2 million, and whether he receives that kind of money in North America or in the KHL doesn’t matter to the Penguins. Rumor has it that he will indeed head over to Russia to play, but that remains to be seen. Regardless, he doesn’t fit here. The Kovalev Round Two experime...