A little friendly advice for the local hockey collective

This would not be a good way to reignite fan interest after a one-year absence from the Atlanta sports scene. I sympathize with them because in a salary cap era, they probably can't afford to pay Ilya $7M/year and still field a good team. And since Ilya has to know that, one wonders whether Don Waddell would ever be able to build a team around a guy who can be that selfish and stand-offish. All that said, the short term effects of losing Kovalchuk to the Russian League and coming out of the signing period without either of the young stars around whom the Thrashers centered their marketing campaign for two years would be very significant. I really hope that the two sides can come back to earth and ink Ilya to a Rick Nash type deal, but this article does not make that prospect sound tenable.