Ilya Kovalchuk reportedly has an offer on the table and only waits to see if a second deal is presented

The NHL’s free agency board will finally get an update!

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Ilya Kovalchuk reportedly has an offer on the table and only waits to see if a second deal is presented
Zuma Press

The free-agent market in the National Hockey League has been opened for months now and no teams has gotten in touch with veteran forward Ilya Kovalchuk. At first, the 37-year-old player wasn’t worried : an offer would come. He believed the right fit will be available for him if he remained patient and continued to train in Florida, where he resides with his family, as he awaited to find out where he could play for the 2020-21 season. 

However, it sounds like that long-awaited NHL offer isn’t coming and on Tuesday, reporter Andrew Zadarnowski for Habs Eyes On The Prize revealed that Kolvalchuk had an offer on the table and would likely be joining KHL Avangard unless an NHL team offers him a deal at the eleventh hour. 


The veteran forward still has some time seeing that the KHL deadline for signing free agents is December 27th, though it sounds far fetched that Kovy will convince an NHL club to take him on by then. 

There was the hope that his journey in the last season would persuade teams to give him another shot. Back in December 2019, his deal with the Los Angeles Kings was terminated and the veteran forward found the perfect fit with the Montreal Canadiens on a league minimum, $700,000 contract. 

He did well there, but was traded at the deadline to the Washington Capitals where his luck ran out. He put up four points in seven games before Covid shut down the season and struggled - as the rest of the Caps did - in the qualifying round of the NHL’s Return to Play plan. 

At the start of the offseason, Kovalchuk wasn’t seriously considering the option of going back to the KHL as he wants to prove he can still help a contender to become champion. 

It now sounds though as if second chances - make that fourth or fifth for Kovalchuk - won’t be happening. 

Source: Twitter