In 2013, Ilya Kovalchuk, the guy who has been called the greatest natural scorer that the NHL has ever seen, made a decision to retire from the series only 3 seasons into a 15-year deal with the New Jersey Devils and return to Russia to play out the rest of his professional career in the KHL. Well, do not call it a comeback, but the 34-year-old Kovie is contemplating a return to North America for its season.
The Russian sniper, who collected 816 points in 816 career matches played at the NHL, has played portions of their last four seasons for SKA Saint Petersburg and is coming off a year where he gathered 78 points in 60 games — good for second in the league in scoring.
Though there’s a slew of challenges to clear if Kovie wishes to play for a team other than New Jersey, BetOnline believes there is a 4/1 chance he starts the 2017-18 NHL season on the roster of the Montreal Canadiens.
In order for Kovalchuk to get cleared as a free agent, every NHL team (such as New Jersey) would have to approve his unrestricted release in the Devils and I’m not so sure that is realistic. The Devils got severely screwed by the Kovie retirement and it’s unlikely they’ll want him scoring goals against them for free. What could happen, however, is that the Devils (who still own his rights) agree to his own return, signal him promptly trade him to another group.
In terms of the potential of the prior Maurice”Rocket” Richard Trophy winner teaming up with the Habs — it creates a great deal of sense. Former KHLer Alex Radulov joined the Canadiens last offseason on a one-piece bargain and it looks like they will try hard to re-sign him. Radulov has hinted that he’d like overall manager Marc Bergevin to make a run at Kovalchuk and given the Habs’ serious issues at the end, Kovie might be just what le doctor ordered.
Montreal already has a strong Russian contingent with the above Radulov, Alex Galchenyuk, Andrei Markov and Mikhail Sergachev all on the roster and also an all-Ruski ahead of Kovie-Gally-Rad will be incredible to see.
All that said, the trade to obtain Kovalchuk from the Devils would be a tough one to negotiate and it’d probably require the Habs to give up a blue-liner and a future draft pick or two. There are also a ton of different clubs in the race to scoop up the marksman of 417 NHL goals so by no means will this be a simple feat for Habs’ brass to achieve, and recall all this is under the premise that the Russian winger even determines to come back at all.
go to website