Devils Screwed by Kovalchuk defection

The New Jersey Devils and their fans were dealt a shocking blow by the decision of Ilya Kovalchuk to remain in Russia and not return to the team by announcing his "retirement" from the NHL.
The retirement is not from hockey,mind you,but the NHL as Kovalchuk will remain in Russia as a member of the KHL,the top league in Europe.

The Devils are no longer obliged to pay Kovalchuk further on his long contract,which Kovalchuk will lose 77 million dollars,although he will recoup much of that with his KHL contract,which will gain the team cap relief in a smaller number now and a larger number down the road.

I give Kovalchuk some credit for leaving some money to stay home,but it is patently unfair of him to hamstring the franchise as he has done for the past two years.
The contract cost the Devils a first round draft choice in compensation,which a likely bad team will lose a high pick for,possibly contributed to the loss of Zach Parise as the team accommodated Kovalchuk first and spent cap space that cost possible other upgrades.

The shot that hurts the most is Kovalchuk waiting until after free agency to make this announcement.
Had he made this decision two weeks ago,the team might have been able to keep David Clarkson or pull another talented scorer from free agency.
Instead,the Devils will enter the season once again looking to fill holes in an less than effective offense.
Likely,the Devils will be making a deal in an attempt to boost the offense,especially with the depth on defense to make a deal involving a blueliner.
The recent one year contract deal with Marek Zidlicky makes the defense the strength of the team and the area most likely to move a player.
If I had to guess,who would be most likely to go,I'd say Mark Fayne,due to his relative youth and team friendly contract and maybe one of the young prospect there as well.

Another aspect to this event is that I think this will lead to a change in play for the team and going back to a more defensive oriented style in the Devils tradition.
You need to play to the strengths of your team and with Martin Brodeur and Cory Schneider in goal with the talented defensemen,that is what I would do.
This will need to be a balanced offense with contributions from several different players and some of the younger players will need to raise their game.
Kovalchuk will be missed on the power play,but I think Michael Ryder may go a long way in replacing him on the man advantage,

In the end,the person to blame is Ilya Kovalchuk.
His selfishness trumps any other reason and will hinder this season's Devils,although I think this might not be a bad thing in the long term.
Kovalchuk's departure is a tough pill to swallow,but the time is to look forward for the Devils family and to do that with players that want to be Devils-not players that want to be somewhere else.
Too many organizations kiss the rears of high maintenance players-not this one....