Lombardi on Kovalchuk

From the PowerPlay on NHL Radio a few hours ago:

Johnathan Davis, our good buddy at Sporting America says to us that he had a chance to sit down with Dean Lombardi recently and asked him why Kovalchuk did not end up as a member of the Los Angeles Kings and was he frustrated in his efforts, was he ever close to a deal? Johnathan heard from Dean Lombardi that he was never close to a deal. In fact, he had only one conversation with Don Waddell.

He told Waddell that if the price were to come down, he should give Dean a call. Lombardi was not prepared to trade any of his top nine forwards or any of his top 6 blueliners as Lombardi said "The locker room has come together." These guys have developed a great bond amongst one another. They truly want to play for each other and the idea of having to break that up, as far as that goes, outweighed what Kovalchuk would bring to the team.