Training camp started for the Atlanta Thrashers on Sunday, and so did Ilya Kovalchuk's evaluation of the team. What he observes could very well clinch one of the biggest decisions in the history of the young franchise.

After this season, Kovalchuk's contract is up. If he gets to July 1, he'll be the most sought-after free agent of the summer — a 40-goal scorer entering his prime.

That's the last thing general manager Don Waddell and the Thrashers want to happen. And, right now, they're cautiously optimistic it won't. Waddell told Sporting News that Kovalchuk, his agent Jay Grossman and Thrashers management plan to sit down in training camp, face to face.

Waddell would love for that meeting to wrap up negotiations.

"That's the best way to get this thing done," Waddell said. "We've had good dialogue. It's at the point now where something needs to happen."

Until then, Kovalchuk will be watching, looking for signs that the summer additions of forward Nik Antropov and defenseman Pavel Kubina, along with the development of young talent like Zach Bogosian, Tobias Enstrom, Bryan Little and Evander Kane, will be enough to push the Thrashers back into playoff contention.

Grossman said Kovalchuk's No. 1 priority is to play for a winner. The Thrashers have been anything but since they made him the No. 1 overall pick in 2001.

Early in Kovalchuk's career, there was doubt about whether a franchise could build a winning team with the Russian winger as its centerpiece. Despite all his goal-scoring — an impressive 297 goals in 545 career games — he has never been a plus player. It's safe to say nobody will mistake his two-way play for fellow Russian Pavel Datsyuk. Kovalchuk also has never won a playoff game.

But during the Thrashers brief playoff appearance in 2007, he was one of the few players who didn't look overwhelmed.

In the 2008 World Championships, it was Kovalchuk who scored the game-tying and game-winning overtime goal against Canada to lift the Russians to the gold medal. In that tournament, he had 14 points in nine games.

Kovalchuk, not Alexander Ovechkin or Evgeni Malkin, was voted the top Russian athlete in 2008 by a Russian sports website.

His international play provides a glimpse as to what kind of player Kovalchuk would be in the Stanley Cup playoffs — if he ever plays for a team that can get there.

That's what makes the coming weeks so important for Kovalchuk. He wants to be mentioned with the Datsyuks, Ovechkins and Malkins when it comes to winners from Russia in the NHL.

If he's convinced that is possible in Atlanta, he'll stay.

"I have spent my whole career here and my family and I love the city and the fans, so I hope things work out well," Kovalchuk said

through the team.

It's easy to want to compare the Kovalchuk situation to the Marian Hossa negotiations with the Thrashers two years ago. Both are star players who like Atlanta, and both put a priority on winning.

There's a major difference. Kovalchuk feels loyalty to the organization that drafted him. It's not a knock on Hossa, who was traded to Atlanta for Dany Heatley. It was Hossa's right to pick where he wanted to commit long-term.

Kovalchuk was drafted by Atlanta. He's been involved in the decision making on the players they acquired this summer. He's the captain. He has a 4-year old daughter, Carolina; a 7-month-old son, Philipp, and his wife Nicole is pregnant with their third child. Raising a family in a city in which you're comfortable is no small consideration.

There's a feeling of ownership between Kovalchuk and the city of Atlanta that didn't exist with Hossa.

"I can only speak for me, but being drafted by a team and playing for the same team your whole career is rare," Kovalchuk said. "If that would happen for me, it would be special."

And here's the biggest difference between the failed Hossa talks and the ongoing Kovalchuk discussions: "We're negotiating," Waddell said.

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When the Thrashers presented the Hossa camp with an offer, the response was more crickets chirping than open discussion.

"We'd throw a number and never got any feedback at all," Waddell said.

Now, during discussions with Grossman and the Thrashers, it's a good old-fashioned negotiation. That's no small point for a franchise desperate to keep its high-end talent.

The Thrashers have made an offer to Kovalchuk. The Kovalchuk camp has countered. Both declined to share the details of those offers ("I don't even tell my wife that," Waddell joked). But there's dialogue and it's positive.

Waddell is optimistic. So is Grossman.

"Yeah, definitely," Grossman said on Monday afternoon. "They've made it clear in their desire to keep Ilya and want him to come back and stay in Atlanta."

If Kovalchuk is convinced the Thrashers are ready to be competitive, that desire will be mutual.

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