Per AFP:

Russian sniper Ilya Kovalchuk was traded by the Atlanta Thrashers to the New Jersey Devils as part of a blockbuster trade involving players and draft picks.

Kovalchuk and Finnish defenceman Anssi Salmela were dealt to the Devils for Swedish defenceman Johnny Oduya, Swedish forward Niclas Bergfors, and suspended forward Patrice Cormier.

The Thrashers also get a first-round and a second-round draft pick this year while the Devils get the Thrashers’ second round pick this year.

Kovalchuk has been in contract talks with Atlanta general manager Don Waddell and recently rejected a massive 12-year, 101 million dollar extension offer from the Thrashers.

Kovalchuk will be one of the key players for Russia in the men’s hockey tournament at the Vancouver Olympics which begins in just over a week.

Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello said they got one of the best goal scorers in the world without giving up too much in return. Kovalchuk becomes a free agent at the end of the season.

“We felt Kovalchuk was a player who could come and fill the need that we felt we had for an explosive scorer and someone who could add a different dimension to our power play with the type of shot,” Lamoriello said. “Then it was just the case of trying to make it work some how where we could not sacrifice tomorrow.”

Kovalchuk is expected to play his first game as a Devil on Friday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The top overall pick in 2001, Kovalchuk has scored more goals (328) than any other NHL player over the past eight and a half seasons.

In 49 games this year, he has 31 goals and 27 assists but he has played in just one career playoff series. He missed six games earlier this year with a broken foot.

The 25-year-old Salmela had a goal and four assists in 29 games this season for Atlanta. He has represented Finland at the 2008 World Championships in Halifax, Canada but was passed over for the team that will go to the Vancouver Olympics.

The 28-year-old Oduya will play for reigning gold medal Sweden at the Winter Games. He has two goals and two assists in 40 games with the Devils.

Bergfors is also Swedish and is fifth among NHL rookies with 27 points, including 13 goals.

The 19-year-old Cormier captained Canada at the 2010 World Junior Championships where they finished second to the US. In 31 games with Rimouski and Rouyn-Noranda of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League he has 11 goals and 20 assists.

Last month Cormier was slapped with a season-long suspension for a vicious check to the head of Quebec Remparts defenceman Mikael Tam.

Per TSN:

The verdict is in.

Rouyn-Noranda Huskies forward Patrice Cormier was suspended for the balance of the season and the playoffs by the QMJHL on Monday.

Cormier, 19, created a firestorm of media attention last week when he elbowed Mikael Tam of the Quebec Remparts in the head, sending Tam into convulsions on the ice and causing him to be taken to hospital with brain trauma and broken teeth.

Chief disciplinarian Raymond Bolduc called the hit “dangerous and unacceptable” after laying out the punishment on Monday.

The incident occurred in overtime of a game on January 17. Cormier took to the ice to start his shift, cut through the centre ice area and threw his right elbow up into Tam’s face. Tam then collapsed, his body shaking until he was taken off the ice on a stretcher by medical staff and players.

Cormier, who was playing in just his third game with the Huskies, was suspended indefinitely by the league pending further investigation.

The hit generated a massive amount of discussion in Canada, drawing the ire of head shot critics from the hockey world. The day after the incident, TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie took to his Twitter account, writing, “This Cormier elbow is sickening on so many levels. I have never been so discouraged about the game of hockey as now.”

The league announced last Wednesday that it would be unveiling “disciplinary measures” the following Monday for Cormier, who was serving as the captain of Canada’s world junior team no more than a few weeks ago.

This suspension also comes just four days after the OHL suspended Windsor Spitfires forward Zack Kassian for 20 games for delivering a charge against a vulnerable player who did not have the puck. That hit was on the Barrie Colts’ Matt Kennedy back on January 14th.

Bolduc had spent recent days looking over testimony from players, officials and team representatives who witnessed the incident.

He added on Monday that Cormier would not allowed to play in any leagues under Hockey Canada’s jurisdiction, but that he had five days to appeal the suspension if he wished to do so.

Meanwhile, Tam is now out of hospital but is waiting to hear whether he’ll be able to resume his hockey career in the near future, if at all.

Cormier, a 6’2, 205-pound New Brunswick native, was selected 54th overall by the New Jersey Devils in the second round of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League has suspended Rouyn-Noranda Huskies forward Patrice Cormier indefinitely for his hit on Quebec Remparts defenceman Mikael Tam during overtime of Quebec’s 3-2 shootout win on Sunday afternoon.

QMJHL disciplinary Raymond Bolduc confirmed Monday that an announcement on the official length of the suspension will be made once the disciplinary process has been completed.

”It’s a great game and situations like this hurt (it) tremendously,” said Remparts head coach Patrick Roy ”and we don’t need those types of shots.”

Cormier, who was Canada’s captain at the IIHF World Junior Hockey tournament earlier in the month, came off the bench for a line change and hit Tam in the head with an elbow.
Tam, an 18-year-old defenceman with the Remparts, went into convulsions on the ice due to the hit and was immediately taken to a local hospital where he remains as a result of brain trauma.

Remparts spokesperson Nicole Bouchard said that Tam underwent a brain scan after the game and that a second scan on Monday morning showed no deterioration in his condition. Bouchard stated that Tam is expected to be released from hospital on Tuesday.

Cormier was given a major penalty for charging and was ejected from the game.

”One thing I didn’t like was the way he left the ice,” Roy said. ”He didn’t show that he felt sorry for what he did, he was arguing with the referee, and when he was asked to leave the ice, he was looking at our bench.”

Roy explained how it was extremely difficult for his players to continue the game following the hit.

”There were a lot of guys crying on the bench and we had about a minute and 28 seconds left in overtime to play. I don’t think anybody had their mind (in the game).

”I said to the guys, and I felt bad saying it, I said; let’s win this one for him and the guys responded well.”

Quebec provincial police questioned witnesses at the rink after the game. Police spokesman Marie-Josee Ouellet said the incident is under investigation to see if there are grounds for criminal charges.

The 19-year old Cormier is no stranger to controversy. In an exhibition game prior to the World Junior tournament, the second round draft choice of the New Jersey Devils in 2008 nailed Sweden’s Anton Rodin with an elbow to the head.

And this moron was Captain of Team Canada at the World Juniors…