Mike Brophy

Veteran hockey columnist Mike Brophy writes Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday on Sportsnet.ca and appears regularly on Hockeycentral.

Ilya Kovalchuk.

A change of scenery might do Ilya Kovalchuk and the Atlanta Thrashers some good.

Numerous people have told me if the Atlanta Thrashers trade Ilya Kovalchuk it will be devastating for the franchise.

I’m not buying it.

There is no question the 26-year-old Russian is one of the most gifted offensive players in the National Hockey league, but what exactly have the Thrashers won in the seven years he has been in the league?

The answer is simple: Nothing.

Depending on what Thrashers general manager Don Waddell is able to secure should he decide to trade Kovalchuk, the Thrashers might be further ahead without him.

Let’s say the Thrashers decide to trade him to Boston. The Bruins, as we all know, hold Toronto’s first round draft picks for the next two years and it’s looking very much like the 2010 pick will be a lottery selection, which means it could be the No. 1 overall choice.

That means the Thrashers could wind up with Taylor Hall, who is back atop the rankings for the next entry draft after briefly making way for Tyler Seguin.

Nobody would expect Hall to step in and be a superstar, but when you add him to a lineup that includes other rising stars such as Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian, Tobias Enstrom and Bryan Little, suddenly things don’t look so bad. In fact, I think you could make the case the Thrashers would have a solid foundation from which to build a contender in a hurry.

Waddell, who has miraculously managed to hold onto his job despite the fact the Thrashers have only made the playoffs once in nine seasons, actually has done a rather nice job of putting together a solid supporting cast as he waits for his kids to develop. Rich Peverley, a waiver wire pickup last season, was a point-per-game player until he hit a recent slump; Nik Antropov has been a gem of a free agent signing and Maxim Afinogenov has managed to find his game after it all but disappeared the past few seasons in Buffalo.

The Thrashers have been hurt this season by a number of players who have yet to hit their stride. Little has just five goals in 41 games after scoring 31 last year; Slava Kozlov appears to have finally hit the wall while Todd White, with just three goals after scoring 22 last season, has been a huge disappointment.

Through it all the Thrashers have remained in playoff contention, even though they have just one win in their past 10 games. At some point, however, you have to start living for the future even if it means sacrificing one year. And it’s not as though they will be sacrificing much. Hockey isn’t exactly a hot commodity in Atlanta at the best of times, but if the Thrashers were to put together a team built around young stars they have drafted, I wonder if they wouldn’t endear themselves to the locals.

The Thrashers currently rank 28th in attendance averaging 13,668 per game, so people are not exactly breaking down the doors of the Philips Arena to see Kovalchuk play.

Having Kovalchuk in the lineup has not paid huge dividends.

Four playoff games three seasons ago – all losses – is hardly a glowing endorsement of what he can do for a franchise. The thought of throwing so much money in the direction of one player seems counter productive for a team that is still searching for an identity. They lose with him; they can lose without him.

For Waddell, this could be a career-saving and career-defining opportunity. Granted it’s hard to get market value for a superstar who wants out of town, but if he is able to get a first round pick to go with a veteran or two, maybe the Thrashers come out ahead of the game.

It would seem there are a number of teams, including the Bruins, Los Angeles Kings and possibly the Philadelphia Flyers that could get into a bidding war to secure his services.

At the end of the day Waddell must decide if he wants to keep spinning his wheels with one superstar or does he want to let the kids take control of the bus to see if they can’t drive it a little further into the post-season.

Re-signing Kovalchuk has too much of a been there, done that feel to it.