Alexander The Great; Isles in Calgary tonight

By 7:00 this morning, three people had asked me if I heard about the Ovechkin contract. Everyone of them also asked me if he was worth it.

Let's see: 13 years and $124 million. That's kind of money is hard to wrap your head around. That is a shade higher than $9.5 million bucks a year.

We know that Sidney Crosby signed with the Penguins at the boutique price of $8.7 million a year just so his contract would be the same as his sweater number. I don't think anyone would argue that Crosby is a better player than Ovechkin is either. In fact, I guess if you're looking at it, Ovie would come in third behind Sidney and Vincent Lecavalier as far as who the best player in the NHL is right now. Of course, further examination of the toys each man is playing with makes the Lecavalier ranking perhaps a bit high because when he looks on his wing, he sees guys like Brad Richards and Martin St. Louis. When Ovechkin looks on his wing, what does he see? Nothing like Lecavalier has, for sure. Also, when Crosby looks over and sees a guy like Colby Armstrong, he shrugs and knows that he also gets to play with Evgeni Malkin. Ovechkin simply does not have that luxury. I guess that makes him #2.

Ovechkin is probably the most marketable Russian player since Sergei Federov--and he is leaps and bounds more comfortable under the bright lights than Federov ever seemed to be. Ovechkin is a kid who freaking loves the game and his enthusiasm for playing reminds me of Brett Favre's. He's a likeable kid with sick skill and that is what the Capitals are banking on--he'll be as great as he is for thirteen more seasons--at least.

Ted Leonsis was quoted in every report saying that he is a gambler. Well, for an organization like the Washington Capitals, this is a gamble that you need to take to build credibility and relevance for your club. The $9.5 million a year is a huge chunk of change, don't get me wrong, and I wonder about the Caps' abilities to surround him with players to help Ovie succeed, but I make this deal too if I have to. If Ovechkin had been traded, the Caps cease to be even a pretender to anything in the NHL for years to come. And if he had been allowed to make it to the end of the year without a contract and had been a restricted free agent, don't you think that 28 or 29 teams are calling him ASAP to talk contract? Hell, I might have called him to see if he'd play for the Islanders!

But see, this isn't the same thing as it was when Leonsis paid Jaromir Jagr all that money. Well, in a way it is--the Caps needed credibility and Jagr needed money--but paying Jagr a lot of money to play disinterested, unmotivated hockey was a big mistake. Jagr does not--and never did have--the intangible "it" that Ovechkin does. Jagr is by all accounts a sullen, less gregarious person who prefers the corner of the room than the spotlight. Think about it--when he was with the Penguins, Mario was the big star. Ron Francis was a big star who probably ran the room simply by just being Ron Francis. That left Jagr off to the side away from the glare--and he was strikingly successful because he didn't have the pressure that Mario Lemieux ever had.

Alexander Ovechkin is 22 years old. Sign him to a six-year deal and he could leave you as a free agent at 28 and in his prime. This is why DiPietro and Mike Richards and Ovie are getting these real long deals. Now, the Caps have locked up Ovechkin until he is 34 and in the home stretch of his career. There's no risk of him going anywhere so you can sell him as the face of the franchise for years to come. He is the cornerstone--just like Rick DiPietro is for the Islanders and Mike Richards is for those freaking goony Flyers.

In other stuff, have you heard about this Okposo kid? He's in Bridgeport right now and the media is all over him as if he was vacationing in Mexico with a marginally talented reality show hairdo. I normally check in on the 'Tigers at connpost.com and today there are a few articles about Kyle Okposo and his professional debut tonight in Binghamton, NY. Lucky for him, too: the Soundtigers are having one of those wonderful three-games-in-three-days AHL stretches. I would guess that he is not going to play in that last one because conditioning is going to be an issue and the guy just got back from the WJC in the Czech Republic.

The family is kicking around whether or not to make the drive to the Bridge Saturday night to see his home debut. If we do make it, expect some live stuff in this space from the game. If not, we'll monitor the Sound Tigers and we'll have some impressions of his game on Monday morning.

And tonight, if there isn't enough going on, the Islanders are wrapping up the western swing with a game against the Flames in Calgary. Calgary has been playing really well of late, 6-2-2 in their last ten. Jarome Iginla is just plain sick, rocking with 60 points at the half-way point. Old hand Adrian Aucoin is back to form, projected for a 40 point season as a plus-player after escaping the negativity and injury bugaboo of Chicago. Aucoin is listed day-to-day (aren't we all?) so I'm not 100% sure he will be playing against the team he made his soup with in the early part of the decade.

The Isles stop over in Ottawa Sunday night to play the Senators before heading home to face Montreal Tuesday night at the Coliseum.