The draft is only a few hours old, and already focus turns to Thursday and the start of the free-agent signing period. ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun gets us started with a good blog item about the Kings’ interest in Ilya Kovalchuk, and a top-four defenseman. Pierre, as usual, hit it right on, in my opinion. Patrick Marleau’s re-signing made a thin market even slimmer, and probably increases the chances of the Kings going after Kovalchuk. The question is, how many other teams will be in that scrum and how much will they spend? On the back end, the Kings are an improbable fit for Toronto’s needs in terms of Kaberle. I tend to think that the Kings will get priced out of what seems to be an ever-growing market for Hamhuis, even though he would be a good fit. Seems as though the bidding there has the potential to get a little out of control in relation to Hamhuis’ ability, but we’ll see. It will be very interesting.
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