Ilya Kovalchuk Eyeing a Return to the NHL

Kovalchuk’s Omsk team recently won the KHL championship and included on that team were former NHLers Nail Yakupov, Corbin Knight, Alexei Emelin, Reid Boucher, Jiri Sekac and others. The win has seemingly sparked Kovalchuk’s interest in making a change and wants to tackle at least one more season with an NHL franchise. Whether that actually comes to fruition or not and if a team is interested remains to be seen.

Andrew Zadarnowski of HabsEOTP writes:

Avangard mentions that the reason they agreed to terminate the contract was that Kovalchuk was planning to return to the NHL next season. It doesn’t specify whether he already has an offer, or if he just wants to be free of commitment in order to explore his options.

Where Would Kovalchuk Fit?

Now 38-years-old, it’s not clear what teams will look for a veteran like Kovalchuk whose best days are behind him. He played well in his last stop in Montreal, but he moved around a lot between the Los Angeles Kings, Montreal Canadiens and Washington Capitals and this past offseason it was noted that he’d be willing to sign with a contender. It didn’t happen.

The salary cap will remain flat and teams will be tight on their expenditures. If Kovalchuk is looking for another chance ton win the NHL, there are only a handful of teams that might have any interest, or that he’d be willing to sign with.

No one should be surprised if rumors start to swirl that he could be headed back to Montreal and would anyone be surprised if GM Marc Bergevin took another look? He’s clearly willing to do whatever it takes to try and win and Kovalchuk had 13 points in 22 games with the Canadiens in 2019-20. Of course, the Canadiens are a much deeper team now.