Think it’s hard to judge a guy like that based on the team he’s on.
Like if you worked with a pack of morons who were generally useless on a daily basis what happens to you? Eventually you put in the bare minimum effort required to make sure the cheque’s keep coming.
Not sure if that’s the case there. But the guy is human. And been around long enough to see who he’s out there with and know they stand no chance
If you go and look up the numbers in a game log, Illya Kovalchuk was just about a point per game player under John Stevens where he was being used on the second line and got power play time with the first unit.
For whatever reason that even the L.A. media around the team couldn't figure out, Willie Desjardins comes in as the interim coach then puts Kovalchuk on the fourth line, cuts his ice time by 5 to 10 minutes per game, and replaces him on the power play unit for guys like Nate Thompson.
An obvious scoring slump kicks in with the change in his on-ice deployment and then an injury to his ankle knocks him out of the lineup. Upon his return he gets put on the third line, gets power play time, and as if by magic he starts putting up points again in his most recent games.
It's one of the weirdest, most nonsensical player usage I've ever seen in all the years I've watched the team.