Ilya Kovalchuk is giving the Montreal Canadiens many avenues of value
By Omar L
Ilya Kovalchuk looks to be one of the greatest gambles of Marc Bergevin’s tenure with the Montreal Canadiens as he continues to produce for the club.
The Montreal Canadiens surprised the hockey world by being the team to give Ilya Kovalchuk a final run in the NHL. At a league-minimum deal, it was the definition of a ‘low-risk, high-reward’ scenario for Marc Bergevin, and it’s been one of the more positive narratives for the Habs so far this season.
Kovalchuk is at a point-per-game pace with the Habs after his two-goal performance against the Philadelphia Flyers Thursday night. The goals themselves came at a much needed time.
Philadephia was controlling the pace of play in the second period beating Montreal in possession, shots, and high-danger chances. However, they ran into penalty trouble in the middle frame, and Kovalchuk capitalized on it.
The first, on the powerplay, saw Kovalchuk used a disappearing act. Kovalchuk found Shea Weber at the point from the left corner with a nice pass despite having two Flyers in front of hi actively trying to block it. Weber’s eventual shot made it on net with the rebound trickling out to an open Kovalchuk who put it in the pack of the net.
His second was in the third period, with the Montreal Canadiens turning on the pressure. What is admirable about that sequence was even though Kovalchuk was hovering around the slot for the eventual pass, there were moments where the puck was along the wall, and he moved over the left board in support of a potential zone exit by the Flyers. Thankfully, the Habs maintained possession, and Danault found him for the snipe.
It looks as if Kovalukchuk is back, and the Montreal Canadiens have a multi-faceted block of value at their disposal. And to make matters better, depending on what your thought process of this whole thing is, Kovalchuk is on a two-way deal.
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If the deadline comes and teams call for Kovalchuk, the Habs could net a good deal of assets. He currently has 3 goals and 4 assists, and if he could bump that production into the double digits, Bergevin may have a lot to work with ahead of the deadline.