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Help up Front: Kovalchuk Signed |
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While most will agree that the Canadiens' season is lost and it's time to look to the future, their GM has decided to bring in some reinforcement in an attempt to save the year. It was announced
less than an hour ago that the Canadiens signed Ilya Kovalchuk to a one-year, two way contract worth $700 000 in the NHL and $70 000 in the AHL.
Kovalchuk was once a hot commodity in the league which lead the New Jersey Devils to sign him to a 15 year contract worth a cool $100 M in 2010. 3 years into the said contract, Kovalchuk decided that he wanted to go home though and therefore retired from the NHL to be able to play in the KHL. In the end, he spent 5 years in the KHL with the SKA St. Petersburg and won the Gagarin cup twice with that team before deciding that he did want to win the Stanley Cup and heading back to the NHL. He signed a 3 year contract with the LA Kings before the 2018-2019 season with a $6 250 000 cap hit. In 81 games with the Kings, he registered 43 points and finished last season with a -26 rating and a -10 in 17 games this season. After announcing Kovalchuk would be scratched for the foreseeable future, the Kings decided to terminate his contract on December 17, 2019 and he became a free agent.
To me, it looks like Gallagher's injury has sent the Habs GM into a bit of a panicked frenzy. Clearly, he's not willing to stay put and watch his team miss the playoffs for the third season in a row but really, does he think that bringing in Scandella and Kovalchuk will be enough to avoid that cruel fate? With all the injuries currently affecting the team, there is no doubt that Kovalchuk is a better offensive weapon than Cousins or Weal but does he have anything left in the thank? Of course, Bergevin is no fool and should this gamble fail, the two way contract will allow him to send Kovalchuk down to the AHL without losing him on waivers (not that there would have been that many interested teams but still).
It will be interesting to see how Claude Julien will use his new player. The Habs bench boss is known for loving defensively responsible players and Kovalchuk is anything but that... Still, it could inject a breath of fresh air in the Canadiens locker room. A left winger, Kovalchuk could be used alongside Domi and Suzuki on the second line and would provide more offensive impact that Artturi Lehkonen for sure but would the line end up being scored on more that it would score? Time will tell...Perhaps Julien will decide to just use him as a power play specialist as well, that's another possibility.
Kovalchuk has got 859 points in the NHL in 897 games, that's a pretty impressive record but at 36, he has considerably slowed down...just ask the Kings.
Since Kovalchuk was in Florida, he could potentially be available as early as tomorrow for the game against Pittsburgh. One thing is for sure, this relatively risk free gamble will make it a little bit more interesting to follow the Canadiens in the coming weeks and who knows, if the Habs stay the course and miss the playoffs, perhaps Bergevin could flip him for a pick at the deadline...
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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