Ilya Kovalchuk won’t return to NHL in 2017-18 season, per reports
The Russian winger will become a free agent next offseason.
One of the best Russian scorers in recent NHL history won’t make his long-awaited return to the NHL next season, according to a couple of reports.
Ilya Kovalchuk has opted to stay in the KHL in 2017-18, as first reported by New York Post writer Larry Brooks and corroborated by Sport-Express reporter Igor Eronko on Tuesday. The New Jersey Devils’ rights to Kovalchuk expire next July 1, when the 2018-19 free agency period opens.
If Kovalchuk had chosen to return now, he’d have to either play in New Jersey or get them to send him elsewhere in a trade. To that end, it sounds like Devils general manager Ray Shero has at least tried.
In end, it was Kovalchuk's decision to return after Shero made attempts to make trades. Just did not work out.
— Larry Brooks (@NYP_Brooksie) July 4, 2017
Kovalchuk, 34, left the Devils for his hometown team SKA St. Petersburg in 2013-14 and has thrived since. He’s scored 107 goals and has 157 assists in 245 games in the KHL over the last four seasons. In 816 NHL games, Kovalchuk amassed 417 goals and 816 assists.
That kind of consistently elite production is what led the Devils to give him a 15-year contract in 2009 (later terminated) and what will make him a prized free agent next summer even at age 35.