NHL

With Kovalchuk, Devils have wing and a prayer

PHILADELPHIA — Perhaps Lou Lamoriello will pay Ilya Kovalchuk $10 million to score goals. He’s already paying $5 million for a checking winger.

Nobody can be this obstinate. If there is a shortage of left wings around the NHL, it is because the Devils are hoarding them, and then they added another world-class one in Kovalchuk.

Kovalchuk is expected to make his third appearance for the Devils when they face the Flyers tonight. He had two assists in his Devils debut, and warmed the hearts of the Devils and their fans by taking on Rangers nuisance Sean Avery, making a moral victory of Saturday’s 3-1 loss at the Garden.

What had to be the finest group of left wings ever on one team improved immeasurably when two-time 52-goal scorer Kovalchuk joined franchise-record scorer Patrik Elias (forced to right wing), budding superstar Zach Parise, former Selke finalist Jay Pandolfo, four-time 30-goal scorer Brian Rolston (the checking right wing), Dainius Zubrus (pressed into center duty), and enforcers Pierre-Luc Leblond and Andrew Peters. That’s eight, nine with lefty-shooting right wing Vladimir Zharkov.

The left wing glut was one reason the Thrashers did not expect the Devils to leap into the bidding for Kovalchuk, but as with the team’s utter lack of righty defensemen, Lamoriello does not let such basic concerns stop him.

Nor was Lamoriello deterred by the prospect of the dough that Kovalchuk is certain to command as an unrestricted free agent in July. The Thrashers revealed that Kovalchuk passed up long-term contract offers of $101 million over 12 years and $70 million over seven.

It is believed that if the Thrashers had gone to the collective bargaining agreement’s maximum allowed salary of $11.3 million per year, 20 percent of the cap, Kovalchuk would have signed, at least short-term.

Oddly enough, if Lamoriello’s gamble that Kovalchuk brings the Devils a fourth Stanley Cup pays off, Kovalchuk will have filled the gaping hole in his resume — a complete lack of playoff success. That’s why he is in New Jersey, and winning the 2010 Cup would likely diminish his desire to remain with the Devils at a discount. And Devils management might be less hungry to chase another Cup at his price.

If they don’t win the Cup, Kovalchuk will be looked upon as a losing gamble and there may be fewer top-dollar suitors elsewhere. The Devils may be more likely to convince him to stay to get another shot at the Cup.

There’s a chance that Devils and Kovalchuk might talk about a contract after the Olympics.

Caution, though. There is always the chance that Kovalchuk could change his mind this summer about that $101 million offer from Atlanta, which he said will always be his second home. And the Thrashers would then have obtained Johnny Oduya, Patrice Cormier, Niclas Bergfors and a first-rounder for Anssi Salmela.

mark.everson@nypost.com