Note: this exercise is completely ludicrous, because there was a 0% chance of it happening in reality.  But what if...

Although he signed a $100 million contract, Kovalchuk's cap hit is only $6 million per season.  That's only $1 million more per season than our new friend, recently signed Paul Martin.  What if, instead of shelling out $5 million for Martin, Shero had inked Kovalchuk at $6 million per season?  Suddenly, we are not looking for a top line winger, or any forward.  We can roll out:

The Koon-Crosby-Dupuis

Kovalchuk-Malkin-Staal

Cooke-Letestu-Kennedy

Adams-Talbot-Rupp.

(Feel free to drop Staal down to 3C, Letestu/WBS player down to 4C, and Talbot up to Malkin's wing)

Of course, then you have a hole on D, 1 million less to play with, and you need another D to replace Martin.  Does it work?

For D:

Orpik-Letang

Z-Gogo

Lovejoy-?

You have to consider that the Pens still have to fill a hole at forward, and that's going to cost money.  Perhaps it's someone cheap fromWBS around 500K, perhaps it's an outside signee who fetches closer to $1 million.  This is money they wouldn't have to pay if they, in my imaginary world, had signed Kovalchuk.  The real question becomes, which would you prefer?  Martin + WBS player/new third line center or Kovalchuk + cheap D/Engelland.  The Kovalchuk option is more expensive by about $1 million, which would only give the Pens $1 million on the year for call-ups/deadline deals.

The Kovalchuk option is sexier, for sure, and it emphatically fills the Pens' top four winger hole.  But that D suddenly looks pretty weak, with Gogo in a top 4 role and someone even less experienced/less effective than Lovejoy paired with him.  The Kovalchuk option is also much riskier - even though his contract comes off the books if he retires, what if his play declines precipitously in his thirties?  Suddenly you've got a cap hit of $6 million for someone who's not contributing AND not much money for defense.

Still, Martin at $5 million vs Kovalchuk at $6?  Very tempting to take Kovalchuk with only one million dollars difference.