If pittsburgh wanted him, they would have tried to sign him

Friedman already reported that there were a handful of playoff teams interested (surely PIT was one of them, but who knows), but they wanted to wait till closer to the trade deadline. No doubt those teams that were interested are still interested now seeing that Kovy can still play (which was a legitimate concern). Kovalchuk didn't want to wait, and Habs gave him a shot.

Honestly though, If Kovalchuk had been playing like he is now since the beginning of the season. I don't think there would be much debate that he would get a solid return (even better than what I'm proposing now). Saying Kovalchuk isn't worth this deal (not saying that you are) is just being bitter.

Pittsburgh was never interested from reports, and if they were, they would have been more aggressive. Pittsburgh isn’t giving up one of their better prospects for a guy they could have signed without giving up any assets.

Not moving Legare

What's so special about him? honest question, Only reason I picked him was that he was french. Would of loved to have Poulin, but I know that wasn't gonna happen

One side of me wants Kovy as a top 6 winger for Sid or Malkin because we could use another offensive minded winger, but the other side of me can't shake the fact that, like Kessel, if Kovy isn't scoring goals, he's hurting your team

I thought the same when the Habs first signed him. and his time with the Habs has been really short, but for his short stint he's been great defensively lol finishes his checks and backchecks and all.

Be as that it may, I still don't like the value. IDK how many teams would be interested in him come TDL time (I'm assuming quite a few) and IDK if I'd want to give up much more than a 4th straight up seeing as he was a UFA and we could've signed him, just seems like bad asset management.

With that being said, I'd be open to trading a lower level prospect + a 4th and just see how it goes lol

Well he can (somewhat) skate, he's similar to Poulin, just doesn't use size as much, but his game will transition to the pros much better where as Poulin basically needs to be playing smaller less strong kids that can't just blow past him like most NHLers would

I think a 4th is a reasonable starting with perhaps some performance-based conditions. Given that Kovalchuk on the Habs has been playing inspired hockey, scoring on a point per game pace and even backchecking and playing good defence, he's shown that he can play still play elite hockey if he puts his mind to it. Its this last part that is the question. His time with the habs has been impressive but its a small sample size compared to how he performed in LA. So a 4th, if the Pens make advance at least 2 rounds with Kovalchuk playing XX number of games/scoring XX number of points its a 3rd, if they make the finals and Kovalchuk plays a big role its a 2nd, if Pens win the Cup and Kovalchuk is the MVP, its a first