Another possibility...
Don Waddell was on Toronto radio a few weeks ago talking about how desperate Carolina was for a scoring forward. He was also saying they need to make the playoffs to retain and grow their fanbase, so he would be listening to teams who have an available top 6 forward.
Now, this was obviously in relation to Nylander, but could the Canes be a fit for Kovalchuk? Not sure if he still maintains a residence in Atlanta, but it's not too far and has a similar climate. I wonder if there would be mutual interest.