In 2013, Ilya Kovalchuk, the man who’s been called the greatest natural scorer that the NHL has ever seen, made a decision to retire in the series only three seasons to some 15-year deal with the New Jersey Devils and return to Russia to play out the remainder of his professional career in the KHL. Well, don’t call it a comeback, however the 34-year-old Kovie is now considering a return to North America for its season.
The Russian sniper, who gathered 816 points in 816 career games played at the NHL, has played parts of the 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.
Although there’s a ton of challenges to clear if Kovie wants to play for a team other than New Jersey, BetOnline thinks there’s a 4/1 possibility he starts the 2017-18 NHL season on the roster of the Montreal Canadiens.
In order for Kovalchuk to have rid as a free agent, each NHL team (including New Jersey) would need to approve his unrestricted release from the Devils and I am not so sure that’s realistic. The Devils got seriously screwed from the Kovie retirement and it is unlikely they will want him scoring goals against them at no cost. What could occur, however, is that the Devils (who still own his rights) concur to his own return, sign him promptly exchange him to another team.
In terms of the possibility of the former Maurice”Rocket” Richard Trophy winner winding up with the Habs — it makes a great deal of sense. Former KHLer Alex Radulov combined the Canadiens last offseason on a one-piece bargain and it looks like they will try hard to re-sign him. Radulov has hinted he’d like overall manager Marc Bergevin to make a run at Kovalchuk and awarded the Habs’ serious issues at the end, Kovie might be precisely what le doctor ordered.
Montreal has a strong Russian contingent with the aforementioned Radulov, Alex Galchenyuk, Andrei Markov and Mikhail Sergachev all on the roster and an all-Ruski forward line of Kovie-Gally-Rad would be amazing to see.
All that said, the trade to acquire Kovalchuk from the Devils would be a tough one to negotiate and it’d probably demand the Habs to provide a blue-liner and a future draft pick or two. There are also a ton of different clubs in the race to scoop the marksman of 417 NHL aims so by no means will this be an easy effort for Habs’ Steel to accomplish, and remember — all this is under the assumption that the Russian winger even determines to return whatsoever.
Read more here: http://www.insightshot.pl/?p=18231