How much more did he want?

Apparently according to ESPN, Waddell has stated that Kovalchuk declined an offer of $101 million over 12 years. If each year is equally paid, that puts him at over $8.5 million a year, which is less than Ovie and will probably be less than Geno and Crosby.

Quite frankly, he's worth less. It's a shame that Grossman and Kovalchuk have such an over-inflated sense of self-importance, but those three guys I mentioned aren't defensive liabilities, and they sure as hell don't float. Waddell's offer was more than fair, and he also has to maintain the stability of the franchise. If Kovalchuk thinks that a) we pay people what they're worth while paying him more than what he's worth and b) any other team would pay more, he's about to get an eye-opener.

EDIT: Waddell released this official statement regarding Kovy. I'm fairly surprised that he did this, but I am glad to see some sort of official statement about this whole thing. It seems as though we couldn't offer enough money, and the lines about wanting to be a Thrasher for life and it not being monetarily related were hoo-ha. Or, and this is a possibility, Kovalchuk has no clue what's going on. He defers to Waddell and Grossman constantly, even when saying that he hopes something can be worked out with Atlanta. Again, Kovy, Grossman works for you.