New Jersey Devils Should Thank Ilya Kovalchuk For Leaving
Former New Jersey Devils superstar Ilya Kovalchuk makes his return to the Prudential Center for the first time since leaving them in the dust.
Ilya Kovalchuk was an outstanding player for the New Jersey Devils. He was a trade deadline acquisition that kept the team in it after a long period of sustained success. He put up outstanding numbers for them. With all of that said, as we stand here in 2019 the Devils organization and its fans should never stop thanking Ilya Kovalchuk for leaving.
Well, how could I say that? In 222 games with New Jersey, he scored 89 goals and chipped in 112 assists for 201 points. Elite numbers if you ask anyone who knows the game. If you combine those with the elite numbers he put up with the now-defunct Atlanta Thrashers, then it was clear that he was on pace to have a case for the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Why would I be happy that he is gone then if he was so great? Nobody was happy about him leaving at the time obviously. An elite player just left in the middle of his contract and set off for Russia just because he felt like it and knew he would make some serious coin.
This move set the franchise back almost a decade if you think about it. Zach Parise and David Clarkson left in free agency, but they owed nothing to the team at the end of the day. They did not leave in the middle of a contract and had every right as NHL players to test free agency.
Just because it was a mess in 2013 does not mean greater things have come of it by the time we got to 2019. If Ilya Kovalchuk never left, an aging player would be making a lot of money on a team that was going nowhere. I say going nowhere because all of the pieces that got them to the Stanley Cup Final in 2012 were either aging or gone in free agency. Adam Henrique was a very good and loyal Devils player, but he cannot be the best player on a championship team.
If Kovalchuk never left they would have been stuck in mediocrity for the duration of his contract. He would also have begun to age by now and they would have been stuck in NHL purgatory. Too good to be in the lottery conversations and not good enough to be a true contender. They certainly would not have won the draft lottery in 2017, which means Nico Hischier would be on another team.
Hischier is a franchise center, and at 20 years old he’s a better player than 35-year-old Kovalchuk. He plays a more important position as well. Even though they are not where they want to be in the standings, the Devils are a young team and the future is much brighter than say the team he plays for, the Los Angeles Kings. The Kings won two Stanley Cups with their current core (one at the expense of Kovalchuk) so they deserve credit as an organization for that, but they are aging.
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Meanwhile, they signed 35-year-old Kovalchuk to a three year $6.25 million per year contract and he only has 10 goals and 15 assists for a whopping 25 points in 42 games. Not completely a bum, but he certainly is not living up to his contract as of yet.
If the Devils would have maintained his rights instead of trading Adam Larsson for Taylor Hall they probably would have overpaid a free agent to make an unrealistic run at the Stanley Cup again. Instead, they got younger and faster. It is not a guarantee that they sign Hall to a contract extension by next offseason, but they sure have a better chance because of Kovalchuk not being in the mix.
Even if Hall does walk or ask to be traded, his time in New Jersey winning a Hart Trophy and lighting the league on fire was so much more fun than watching Ilya Kovalchuk get old and put up 45-55 points at $6 million a year. The rebuild is still going on but it would be in the much earlier stages if Kovalchuk and his aging cap hit was still around. We can only hope that Hall sticks it out and sees the glory days return to Newark, unlike Kovalchuk.
Tonight, the New Jersey Devils host Kovalchuk and his Los Angeles Kings at the Rock. Kovalchuk is going to be a member of the visiting team for the first time since leaving the team for the KHL. He expects to hear plenty of “boos” and one can only hope his expectations become reality and the fans get real creative with their signs.