NEW YORK -- The Rangers added another high-priced All-Star to their struggling lineup, reacquiring Alexei Kovalev from the cash-strapped Pittsburgh Penguins in an eight-player trade Monday.

New York, already with an NHL-high payroll of more than $70 million, made the deal for the flashy forward as part of a desperate push to make the playoffs for the first time since 1997.

ESPN the Magazine's E.J. Hradek is reporting that as part of the Kovalev deal, the Rangers sent $3.9 million to the Penguins.

The trade comes just 1½ weeks after Rangers general manager Glen Sather fired rookie coach Bryan Trottier and moved behind the bench.

		Mon., Feb. 10 Teams never get equal value when trading a player like Alexei Kovalev. That is a fact. The Rangers got one of the elite players in the league and a world-class offensive talent, while the Penguins got four guys who will probably be fringe players for them, plus somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 million. That exchange of players combined with the fact that Pittsburgh also got rid of the salaries of Janne Laukkanen and Mike Wilson says a lot about the motives and current economic status of the Penguins. On the ice, Kovalev is going to help New York's power play and dramatically increase its 5-on-5 scoring. He is a player opponents fear, one who always is paired against an opponent's top checker, centerman, or defenseman, which frees up room for a lot of other guys. But the Rangers still have other issues to address. They got a great scorer and did not give up a top-six forward from their roster, but New York has some serious holes to fill defensively, has a poor penalty-killing unit and has to find a way to keep the puck out of the net. Kovalev is not the one missing piece that is going to get New York into the playoffs.

The Penguins sent Kovalev, their second-leading scorer, forward Dan LaCouture, and defensemen Janne Laukkanen and Mike Wilson to the Rangers for forwards Rico Fata and Mikael Samuelsson, defensemen Richard Lintner and Joel Bouchard, and what is believed to be $4 million.

The financially troubled Penguins had said any deal involving Kovalev would require a $4 million payment -- the most allowed by the NHL.

"I don't think it's a salary dump at all. I think it's a trade," Sather said, referring to a deal three weeks in the making.

"This is a trade I don't think many teams would turn down. We were fortunate to be there at the right time."

Kovalev spent the first six-plus seasons of his NHL career with the Rangers and was a member of New York's Stanley-Cup winning team in 1994.

"Just to be where I first started will be a great opportunity," Kovalev said. "I want to take this team to the playoffs and give us a chance to win the Stanley Cup again."

He has 27 goals and 37 assists this season and was coveted by many teams. Some apparently were eliminated by the high price tag.

New York is in 11th place in the Eastern Conference and trails in the race for the final playoff spot by six points. Kovalev joins a lineup that added free agents Bobby Holik and Darius Kasparaitis last summer, and fellow Russian forward Pavel Bure at last season's trade deadline.

Dollars mattered most to Pittsburgh. Kovalev, who turns 30 later this month, turned down an estimated $30 million offer before the season, apparently because he wants a deal in the $8 million-a-year range. He is earning $4.6 million this year.

"Our goal is to get to the playoffs," Penguins GM Craig Patrick said. "We believe this is a deal that will help us make the playoffs."

The deal will help the Penguins save $2 million in salary this season.

Kovalev declined to discuss his contract on Monday, but Sather said he hopes to work out a new deal.

The right wing is eligible for arbitration after this season, and his salary demands wouldn't fit into the Penguins' $32 million payroll. Penguins owner and player Mario Lemieux expects the team to lose money this year.

Lemieux said he was going to do all he could to keep the Penguins out of bankruptcy, where the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators have already landed this season. Lemieux bought the Penguins out of bankruptcy in 1999.

Sather fired Trottier just 54 games into the season. The Rangers are 0-2-1-1 under Sather and are in an 0-5-1-1 slide with only 24 games remaining. New York is looking for offensive punch depleted by lengthy injuries to Bure and Brian Leetch.

"He's an elite player that has tremendous skill," Sather said, referring to Kovalev. "We need someone who can put the puck in the net."

In the last five years, the Penguins have lost some of the game's most creative offensive players _ Jaromir Jagr, Ron Francis, Robert Lang and, now Kovalev -- because of finances.

Kovalev often caused frustration during his first stint in New York, never living up to his potential.

"Nothing was wrong. I liked everything I just had trouble having success," said Kovalev, who still owns a house in New York. "Maybe I had trouble with the coaches.

"This is my second home except for Russia."

He reached the 20-goal mark four times in New York, with a high of 24 in 1995-96.

Kovalev was dealt to Pittsburgh on Nov. 25, 1998. With the Penguins, he scored 169 goals in five seasons. He had 44 two seasons ago and 32 last season.

"A big part of it is I started playing a lot more and got the confidence from the coaches," Kovalev said. "No one tried to teach me anything."

The Rangers were able to swing the deal without giving up jewels such as forward Jamie Lundmark and 19-year-old goalie Dan Blackburn.

Samuelsson had eight goals and 14 assists with the Rangers this season, Fata had two goals and four assists, Bouchard had five goals and seven assists, and Lintner has spent all but 10 games in the AHL.

LaCouture had two goals and two assists with the Penguins. Laukkanen has been injured most of the season, but Sather thinks he will return soon. Wilson has been in the AHL.

"The Rangers demanded LaCouture to make the deal," Patrick said. "I tried to avoid it."

It was the third deal in a 24-hour span by the Penguins, who are two points ahead of the Rangers.

Pittsburgh traded defenseman Andrew Ference to Calgary for a conditional draft pick Monday, and received defenseman Shawn Heins from San Jose, also for a conditional draft pick, on Sunday.