Hello once again and here’s another NHL career video.
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24 Comments
As an old Thrashers fan he was my favorite player growing up! Had his jersey and hockey cards as a kid!
Always was a treat seeing that shutdown line of Hammer and Oduya
Hello to my old fellow BlueLand believers in the comments
With Kovalchuk, I feel like Mickey in Rocky when he yells at Rocky for wasting his talent by working for the loan shark.
Ilya Kovalchuk was a talented player, but to be honest he really gave a bad taste of his persona after July 2013, and after 2015, he was not high on my list of players….
After his Announcing of "retiring" from hockey, just after having a very lucrative contract signed with New Jersey – just to then unannounced resume his career right away in KHL…all this manipulation to get off a very generous contract…talk about blowing your fans off. Having the honors of playing in the greatest hockey league in the world and screw a $77 million contract. And then just 4 years later wanted back into the NHL?
BUT the worst he did that really made me lose ALL respect for the guy was in the 2015 IIHF World championships when he was the team captain for his native Russia.
Canada won the gold medal game with a blow-out and naturally afterward there are winning nation's national anthem playing, celebrating the winners. HOWEVER…
Kovalchuk, the captain nodded to his teammates of the Russian players to exit the ice after receiving their silver medals, but prior to the playing of the Canadian national anthem (!)
When I saw this, I dropped my jaw and became angry because as a former athlete myself, you ALWAYS show good sportsmanship win- like loss, and in such a honorable tournament to participate in AND in the medal games in inexcusable to act like this. Its deeply disrespectful and true showing of bad sportsmanship and bad behavior.
"We did not know it was not over yet" was captain Kovalchucks defense afterward….that was a big FAT lie. Her knew EXACTLY what he and his teammates did. He was a veteran at this stage, so such lies are just a big pile of BS.
The Russian Hockey Federation was fined for the act, and while the IIHF determined Kovalchuk gave an "unmistakable head gesture" for his team to leave, he was not independently punished.
Knew this was coming eventually…
Agreed, no way they can keep ignoring Mogilny for sub 1000 pts players, no matter the whats and the ifs!
What's amazing about the Kovalchuk contract is the term…why 17 years? Why not 10 or 12 or 14? It was a personal insult to Gary Bettman, who Lou thought at the time, and still does, is a clown! In 2010 Gary Bettman had celebrated his 17th year as commissioner of the NHL, and instead of slapping him down hard, Lamoriello walked away with a "tsk, tsk" proving that where Bettman was concerned, he was right all along.😊
I will always remember his cannon of a shot from the off wing on the point during the powerplay. That thing was a rocket with eyes!
Kovalchuk was light’s out in the shootouts, and when he left for the KHL he was literally a PPG player. Wish he hadn’t came back, the results were predictable.
Kovalchuk sits 7th in points and without a doubt would have as many points, or even more, than leading all-time point getter Alex Ovechkin. Let’s replace every season he played in the KHL (discluding the lockout shortened season in 12-13 with say 50 points a season, which to me, seems quite reasonable. He did in fact finish that lockout season with 31 points in in 37 games. That’s 50 points a season, for five seasons. That’s another 250 points, which puts him at a career total of 1,109. Let’s say he gets 60 in each season (which I believe could have been absolutely possible) as Kovalchuk never had less than 60 points in a season other than his rookie year (51), the lockout shortened season, and his now horrible tenure with the Los Angeles Kings) which would put him at a career point total of 1,159, which would put him at third all-time. Let’s say he has 70 in each of those seasons, which again, I believe could have been possible. That would put him at 1,209, good for second all-time. If we decide to add his 2005-05 season
Now let’s move on to his goals.
Kovalchuk currently sits at 436 goals, best for 5th all-time. Pretty good considering he was gone for five seasons. Let’s say he scored 20 goals in each of those five years. That puts him at 536 goals, already best for second all-time. How about 30? 586. 40? 636, only 43 behind ovechkin’s current total.
What if Kovalchuk joined a better team than Los Angeles, and utilized him like the elite goal scorer that he is? What if he never sat out the 05-06 season due to failing to reach a contact agreement after Kovalchuk netted 41 goals and 87 points in 03-04 and decided to stay in Russia after the 04-05 NHL lockout? What if Kovalchuk never screwed the Devils, and bolted for the KHL? We can’t blame the man for wanting to play in his home country and being closer to family. But most fans did.
I’m just a Kovalchuk fan. I never got to watch him live, in person. I was born in 2000, was exposed to hockey at a young age, but never really watched until I hopped on the hockey bandwagon until 2010, when the Canucks did the one thing they haven’t done in years. Only highlights, like Kovy’s end to-end goal against the Canes in 2008. The only time I ever got to watch him was in his cup run with the devils. I grew up a huge goalie lover, a big fan of Marty Brodeur. What got me into Kovalchuk was, how could a guy so talented, with such amazing highlight goals, be absolutely nowhere to be found in the NHL? He literally looked like a clone of Ovechkin, but with a little more dynamic in his game. I was absolutely ecstatic to see him in the Olympics twice since he left the NHL. Shame I knew that was the last I would see him at his “best”.
Without bias, Kovalchuk is without a doubt one of the greatest hockey talents to ever come from Russia. With blazing speed, big power-forward like body, with one of the best shots the league has ever seen. These are all reasons why current NHL Star Taylor Hall is another person favorite of mine. I see Kovalchuk in the same vein as NBA Star Derrick Rose: one of the NHL’s greatest tragedies. One of the leagues brightest stars, to enemy of the fans, and now “washed up” diva, in the words of many.
For me, Kovalchuk is my favorite player to ever play in the nhl without a doubt and nothing will ever change that.
Thanks to all who took the time to read this. Greatly appreciated!!!
It's very surprising to me to see his stats vs how I remember him. I'm definitely the glass half full when it comes to his return years. This was probably due to spending plenty of time playing NHL video games and how his character performed there. A little nostalgic, but we would go random teams, and Atlanta was one of a kind in the way that Ilya "bag of d***s" Kovalchuk was nearly unstoppable. He was similar to the Eric Staal, Rick Nash types that were big fast and couldn't be bumped off the puck. That aside, I think I'd agree that if he were on a better team and no character issues popped up, he'd be a sure shot HOF. Also agree on the Mogilny sentiment.
NJD Legend Ilya Goalvalchuk
I always wanted him on Pittsburgh to play with malkin
I am only a 20 year old, so I never got to see Kovalchuk at his prime, but given what I've seen and heard, he was elctrifying to watch. He is kind of a what if? What if he never left to go back to Russia and stayed in Jersey? Would they have made another run for Marty, personally I think not, but who knows? Also speaking of Russian What ifs, Alex Semin, also known as The Other Alex would be an intresting career to cover. He was really good for a long time in Washington playing with Ovi and Backstrom, but after a point a game year in his first year in Carolina, he flamed out really quickly and only played parts of three more years in the NHL. The what if with Semin is what if he could have been able to bounce back after having a bit of an underwhelming 2014 15 season? feel like his drastic dropoff cost him about 4 to 6 years of NHL days. His career will always be a mystery to me.
41 goals winning you the Rocket Richard🤮 thank god the game has evolved
One of my favorite players of all time. He had a bullet of a shot. It’s such a shame mogilny isn’t in the hall of fame.
Enjoying all the love in the comments for Kovy. One of my heroes.
Had he not left he would probably finish hes carrer with around 550-600 goals in the NHL which would put him in the hall of fame straight away
As a Georgia boy whose first exposure to hockey was playing NHL ‘06, Kovalchuk was my favorite player growing up (and pretty much the only reason to tune into any games). Just a joy to watch him play when he was on
Habs legend
Caps legend
As a Kings fan I really wanted him to sign with us but him choosing the Devils over us was important because otherwise we probably wouldn't have won two cups
Say what you want about Ilya, but when he was in Atlanta he was right there with Ovi in terms of striking fear coming down the left side. His accuracy was disgusting