Confirmed with Link: Kings announce signing kovalchuk to 3 year contract.

[Ziggy Stardust]

 

[The Tikkanen]

Kovalchuk is now tied for 19th in scoring among Kings players in his 4 games in Montreal.

 

[Statto]

He's a high-dollar journeyman that would have held out or insisted on going to a real Contender when he returned to the NHL because obviously as stated this was his last shot to get a cup. While you might not see that as spinning the truth on his and his agents behalf, then there's really nothing to debate about.

If his intentions were really to play on a contender he would have held his agent to the fire and made sure he went to the sharks or Pittsburgh or Boston or any other team that was in the market for him if that meant taking less money, he could have made it happen, but as the reports have already stated his wife or girlfriend or whatever wanted to come to LA because she was an actress and or because of the school system or something other than hockey related decisions.

You’ve started with a conclusion and you’re making an argument to fit around that. It’s like the stuff with his wife that’s mostly speculation on the internet. Even though, so what if it were a consideration? Do you think married free agents don’t choose their destinations without input from their wives?

You want to believe he could have held out for Boston, Pitts or any top contender rather than sign in Montreal but there is zero evidence to back that up as a genuine possibility. If there is something I’ve missed please cite the source, I’d be interested in reading it.

As for when he first came to the NHL... Most players sign the best deals they can. At the time he signed, LA wrongly felt they were a contender with a glaring hole at LW. In many respects it was a good fit, but ultimately nothing was further from the truth. There were plenty of people that shared the view LA were still contenders and the speed of our drop off surprised pretty much everybody. It proved a bad fit, no doubt. However, you're out of line questioning the mans integrity, by all means criticise his play but the rest of it is BS. You’ve clearly got a boulder sized chip in your shoulder over it. Nobody that actually knows the facts about it has a bad word to say about the man. If his integrity was an issue they may not say it, however they wouldn’t be going out of their way to applaud his character.

 

[KingsFan7824]

He looks like he is having fun. Only catching highlights but he has made some nice plays. I like Kovy, hope he can keep it up. We will never hear the end of it tho if he does individually well even if the team goes on another 8 game losing streak.

That's basically what the Kings did. At least in the Stevens/Kovalchuk era. He led the team in scoring, but the team was last overall. And then we never heard the end of how bad the signing was.

Montreal has a coach who knows how to use him. Put him on the top line, 20 minutes a night-like Brown and Iafallo.

Which the Kings tried to do, and it got the coach fired.



Some nice plays. Some good goals. Looked excited and like he was having fun. None of it resulted in more wins than losses. Not even close.

 

[KingsHockey24]

I wanna see Montreal flip him to Pittsburgh and we get to see him play with Malkin.

 

[FrozenKing18]

I wanna see Montreal flip him to Pittsburgh and we get to see him play with Malkin.

 

[mr2padstack]

You’ve started with a conclusion and you’re making an argument to fit around that. It’s like the stuff with his wife that’s mostly speculation on the internet. Even though, so what if it were a consideration? Do you think married free agents don’t choose their destinations without input from their wives?

You want to believe he could have held out for Boston, Pitts or any top contender rather than sign in Montreal but there is zero evidence to back that up as a genuine possibility. If there is something I’ve missed please cite the source, I’d be interested in reading it.

As for when he first came to the NHL... Most players sign the best deals they can. At the time he signed, LA wrongly felt they were a contender with a glaring hole at LW. In many respects it was a good fit, but ultimately nothing was further from the truth. There were plenty of people that shared the view LA were still contenders and the speed of our drop off surprised pretty much everybody. It proved a bad fit, no doubt. However, you're out of line questioning the mans integrity, by all means criticise his play but the rest of it is BS. You’ve clearly got a boulder sized chip in your shoulder over it. Nobody that actually knows the facts about it has a bad word to say about the man. If his integrity was an issue they may not say it, however they wouldn’t be going out of their way to applaud his character.

We're basically at a dead end for this cyclical argument so let's agree to disagree, so... go ahead and defend a guy that put the Jersey Devils in cap hell and fined for ducking out of his contract early to flee to Mother Russia, only to want back in the league to suit his ego for top dollar.

By all means, defend his actions as a mark of integrity--an honorable man that wouldn't honor his contract. Perhaps you forgot about that little doozy? I'll continue to think that he's a high-priced journeyman that only looks out for number one.

 

[Statto]

We're basically at a dead end for this cyclical argument so let's agree to disagree, so... go ahead and defend a guy that put the Jersey Devils in cap hell and fined for ducking out of his contract early to flee to Mother Russia, only to want back in the league to suit his ego for top dollar.

By all means, defend his actions as a mark of integrity--an honorable man that wouldn't honor his contract. Perhaps you forgot about that little doozy? I'll continue to think that he's a high-priced journeyman that only looks out for number one.

I will just throw something in, and will then as you suggest agree to disagree . By playing, Kovi could show the contenders that he has something to offer them in a play-off run. Montreal can then easily flip him for a pick as his cap hit is now so low it’s a complete non factor. We will see I guess.

Edit: Ah Kingshockey got there first.

 

[Legionnaire]

Modry FTW!

 

[bouncesonly]

Ah, semantics. If he truly wanted a shot at the cup would he sign with the Canadians? Mic dropped.

lol mic drop after claiming to know kovy's intentions. just lol.

 

[Jason Squirties]

lol mic drop after claiming to know kovy's intentions. just lol.

 

[KingsHockey24]

I don't buy jersey's very often but Kovalchuk was one of my childhood favs.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I don't buy jersey's very often but Kovalchuk was one of my childhood favs.

I was surprised how good it looked on him really. Kovy in the whites was awesome and kinda surreal.

 

[mr2padstack]

Funny GIF, but I was not claiming to read minds, I'm following his actions of signing with Kings and then Canadiens--you know, contenders. My interpretation is what I said from the outset--IK is a hired gun journeyman that had no intentions of only coming back to play for the cup. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[SlimCharles]

Oh look, an all-time great player is having success when used properly. Crazy how that works.

 

[Herby]

Just add him to the list of "wish we had him a decade ago" players that have been in LA.

Lecavalier
Iginla
Kovalchuk
Smyth

Atleast Gaborik worked out.

 

[KingsHockey24]

Oh look, an all-time great player is having success when used properly. Crazy how that works.

For me it's too early on to make a judgement. Kovalchuk had longer stretches of looking good as an LA King.

If he's able to have similar production a month from now you can say it just wasn't the right fit.

 

[KingsHockey24]

Just add him to the list of "wish we had him a decade ago" players that have been in LA.

Lecavalier
Iginla
Kovalchuk
Smyth

Atleast Gaborik worked out.

Ryan Smyth was actually pretty good as a King.

I just rewatched the 2010 series against Vancouver; had Frolov scored on the breakaway and Smyth score on the wide open net I do believe we win the series.

 

[verbalkint47]

Just add him to the list of "wish we had him a decade ago" players that have been in LA.

Lecavalier
Iginla
Kovalchuk
Smyth

Atleast Gaborik worked out.

We also had Phanuef, Gagne, and Setoguchi haha

 

[BigKing]

Oh look, an all-time great player is having success when used properly. Crazy how that works.

He isn't doing anything that different than what he was doing here at the start of each season. He even won a game in OT for the Kings.

His Kings career over an 82 game season is basically 20 goals and a half point per game. It is no surprise that he is picking up points. He's such a net negative though that his points weren't enough to outweigh the flaws in his game.

 

[YP44]

We also had Phanuef, Gagne, and Setoguchi haha

completely forgot about Setoguchi,

Man was I pumped when Gagne signed. I remember boasting LA had the Flyers top line that recently took them to the finals as their second line.

 

[Steve Zissou]

completely forgot about Setoguchi,

Man was I pumped when Gagne signed. I remember boasting LA had the Flyers top line that recently took them to the finals as their second line.

Flyers West baby!

 

[YP44]

Flyers West baby!

Not sure what that gif has to do with anything but I like it.

 

[HeadInjury]

Just go with it, he's on a roll.

 

[kovacro]

Ilya Kovalchuk Q&A: What went wrong with the Kings and the fit in Montreal

Ilya Kovalchuk Q&A: What went wrong with the Kings and the fit in Montreal - Sportsnet.ca