Take it for what it’s worth. According to an ESPN report, the Devils’ richest star in franchise history Ilya Kovalchuk could be getting 17 years, $150 million when he makes it official at tomorrow’s press conference in Newark. Yiiiiiiiikkkkkkesssss.

I want you to repeat this 10 times fast.

SEV—–EN—–TEEN YEARS ONE—HUNDRED—–AND——FIF——TY MILL—–I—ON!!!!!!

There is no other way to describe it as insanity. This from one of the most respected GMs in sports. Woooooow.

UPDATE: Well, no great shock that Scott Burnside was wrong. The official numbers are 17 years for a cool $102 million. At six million a pop, I’d say Kovalchuk took a huge discount just so he could finish the rest of his career in the Garden State. Maybe he wanted to upstage buddy Alex Ovechkin. But there’s no way he’s worth as much as Ovi and that played out with many teams not even bothering. Is Ilya one of the best pure snipers in the game? Absolutely. Can he put up points in a hurry? No doubt. But what other team was seriously going to give him that much security? Not only did Lou once again score big here but got the exciting Russian at a bargain, which means he should be able to re-sign top priority Zach Parise next summer. Only the Devils could pull something like this off. That’s what you get when the GM knows too many loopholes in what’s become a flawed system. So much for the cap resolving everything.

How is it good for the league that basically, three teams vyed for his services and one was from the KHL? He priced himself out. Here’s one huge question we’re hoping a reporter will have enough guts to ask tomorrow.

Q: Were the Devils your top choice?

A: Da!

:as Dean Lombardi chokes up his drink: