Montreal Canadiens: Three Former Habs Who Someone Should Take a Chance On
Ilya Kovalchuk
The big, skilled Russian winger used to be one of the most feared goal scorers in the world. He made an otherwise terrible Atlanta Thrashers team a little scary to play against for a few years single handedly. While his days as a Rocket Richard Trophy winner are over and his years as an automatic 40 goal scorer are well behind him, someone should still sign Kovalchuk.
The 37 year old played the past two seasons in the NHL after a lengthy stint in the KHL. He certainly didn’t live up to the huge contract he signed with the Los Angeles Kings in 2018, that was supposed to pay him $6.25 million for three seasons.
Instead, his contract was terminated midway through last season which was the second of his three year agreement. That was what led to his short stay in Montreal.
Kovalchuk signed a one-year contract with the Canadiens for the remainder of the 2019-20 season in early January. He would play 22 games in Montreal before being traded to the Washington Capitals, but he became a bit of a fan favourite during that short stay and put up six goals and 13 points.
He would go on to score four points in seven regular season games with the Capitals, and this was after he had three goals and nine points in 17 games with the Kings to begin the season. In 2018-19, Kovalchuk scored 16 goals and 34 points in 64 contests with Los Angeles.
While he doesn’t light up the scoreboard anymore, his offensive production has been remarkably consistent since he returned to the NHL. In each of his three stops this season and his full year with the Kings previous to that, Kovalchuk averaged just over half of a point per game.
His production may come in bursts, with some lengthy stints between where he doesn’t find the scoresheet. However, Kovalchuk proved with the Habs that he doesn’t cheat when it comes to effort, he can be a huge positive influence on younger players in the dressing room and he is pretty much guaranteed to average just over half a point per game.
For $750,000, surely someone can use close to 20 goals and 40 points next season from a likeable veteran who was a first overall pick in 2001 and has close to 1000 games of NHL experience.