Montreal Canadiens: Ilya Kovalchuk Hoping For NHL Return

Three former Montreal Canadiens won the Gagarin Cup yesterday.

Alexei Emelin, Jiri Sekac and Ilya Kovalchuk helped Avangard Omsk through the KHL Playoffs and won a championship.

Sekac played a depth role for the team, while Emelin was sidelined with serious liver damage. He apparently had a bad reaction to a painkiller taken after a game a few weeks ago and needed to be rushed to the hospital. He was back with the team as they hoisted the trophy, but he did not return to game action.

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Kovalchuk returned to the KHL midseason and had another strong year for the team. He played just 16 games as he waited to see if he could work out an NHL contract before deciding to return to the KHL. Though he only played 16 games, he did score 17 points and chipped in with another nine in 24 playoff games.

At 38 years old, you might think this would be a nice way for the 2001 first overall pick to ride into the sunset. He went back home, won a championship and played an important role on his team.

That’s not the case though. Kovalchuk immediately terminated his contract with Omsk, and it sounds like he wants to try and return to the NHL.

Avangard said that Kovalchuk wanted to return to the NHL next season, and they agreed to terminate his contract in order to allow him to do that.

The veteran Russian winger wouldn’t be eligible to play in the NHL Playoffs this season, since he was not under a team’s control at the trade deadline. However, he could sign a contract for next season right now if he wants, and could even sign with a team for this season and play regular season games, but not the playoffs.

Of course, the quarantine period necessary would make that pretty much impossible anyway.

Kovalchuk was one of the few bright spots on an otherwise dark 2019-20 season for the Canadiens. He was signed just after New Year’s Day and played 22 games, scoring six goals and 13 points before being traded to the Washington Capitals.

There were plenty of rumours at the time of the trade that Kovalchuk loved it in Montreal and was willing to return. It didn’t happen for this season, but I’d expect to hear the rumour mill start churning on Kovalchuk’s desire to play in Montreal again this offseason.