Ilya Kovalchuk is one of the best players to ever play for the New Jersey Devils. It might be hard to admit that now, knowing how he left, but it's just the truth.
Not only was he a great player who consistently remained the team's leading scorer, but he was perhaps a big reason the Devils were always considered one of the league’s better teams. Unfortunately, though, he is also remembered as the guy who walked away from the team to be with his family and quit on the Devils. But let’s say that decision never happened.
What if Kovalchuk stayed with the Devils following the 2012-13 season? Could he not only maintain his consistent stats but also become an MVP or even a Stanley Cup champion?
The 2013-14 season was not a very good season for the Devils, mostly due to the Kovalchuk retirement being fresh in everyone’s minds. With Kovalchuk not leaving, however, this would open the doors for something very special: a signing that the team made 11 days after Kovalchuk’s departure. Â
When the Devils signed Jaromir Jagr, the idea was that this was going to be the replacement for Kovalchuk, but let’s say they get Jagr away and now with Jagr and Kovalchuk on the same team, it would cause at least a couple of choices of the deadliest line combinations in the NHL, with possibly the line looking like Kovalchuk-Zajac-Jagr, or especially since Adam Henrique was still one of the better players on the Devils that year.
For Kovalchuk’s stats, now that this was a full season, he would’ve gone at least a little higher, and since they could all be healthy, Kovalchuk would’ve had 92 points with 40 goals and 52 assists. Kovalchuk’s 92 points would’ve been second place in the MVP voting, as Sidney Crosby won it that year with a 104-point season.
Maybe due to Kovalchuk’s point totals, we could’ve had a few more wins, maybe sneaked in the Wild Card spot over the Flyers in the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and maybe put up a fight against that Rangers playoff team that year, that went to the Stanley Cup Finals and maybe even beat them, with Kovalchuk getting 5 goals in that series alone, but I don’t think they would’ve beaten Pittsburgh that year, which is fine anyway because it would give the franchise some hope.
What if Ilya Kovalchuk played through his contract with the New Jersey Devils?
Now we skip ahead by 3 ½ years to the 2017-18 season. The Devils could have more playoff appearances, but still have the worst record in the 2016-17 season, which still earns them the first-overall pick, and still gets them Nico Hischier.Â
That season that the Devils had a Taylor Hall Hart Trophy season, but what if it wasn’t Taylor Hall who won MVP?Â
Maybe someone else could’ve won MVP, and maybe that person would be 34-year-old Ilya Kovalchuk. Kovalchuk could have a great season with Taylor Hall on his wing, and along with a rookie Nico Hischier, that would be just as deadly as a Kovalchuk-Henrique-Jagr line.Â
Kovalchuk could have a couple of games in which he scores a hat trick against the Rangers and even against other top teams. Kovalchuk would finish with 96 points, including 40 goals and 56 assists. That would earn him his first-ever Hart Trophy.Â
For the Devils in the playoffs that year, Kovalchuk would’ve been great against the Lightning, he could’ve put up 5 goals against them in a 6-game series. Against the Bruins in the second round, Kovalchuk would also have a five-goal series in a well-fought seven-game series, with Kovalchuk ending the series on an OT goal at home with sweet passing from Hischier.Â
Now up against the Capitals in the Eastern Conference Finals, Kovalchuk, not as powerful in the last two series, still put up a three-goal series in a seven-game win, with great goaltending by Cory Schneider. The Devils are going back to the Stanley Cup Final.Â
There they would play the Vegas Golden Knights, and Kovalchuk would not only have a four-goal series, but the veterans outlasting the young Vegas Golden Knights, the Devils would win their 4th Stanley Cup in a five-game series. They would win the final game at home, with Kovalchuk getting the Conn Smythe Trophy, holding the Stanley Cup high over his head, finally having not only won the Hart Trophy and Conn Smythe Trophy, but also become a Stanley Cup Champion.
While Kovalchuk would have more good seasons, the contract he signed back in 2010 would also see him regress, but he would still put up a couple of 60-70-point seasons to finish off his career.
If Kovalchuk was still playing today, maybe Tom Fitzgerald would work his magic and acquire Quinn Hughes at the deadline. Anything is possible in our what if world.
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