There have been no discussions in the past two weeks between the Devils and Jay Grossman, the agent for winger Ilya Kovalchuk, GM Ray Shero told The Record’s Andrew Gross. Grossman does have permission to speak with other teams to gauge their interest and potentially attempt to broker a trade.
Kovalchuk retired from NHL and New Jersey back in 2013 but has played in the KHL since then. He has indicated that he would like to record to the NHL next season but will require a sign-and-trade to do so since it’s unlikely that all 30 teams will willingly sign off on his return. Although early indications are that Kovalchuk isn’t particularly interested in returning to play for the Devils, Shero hasn’t completely given up on hope on that happening just yet.
Other news and notes from around the hockey world:
- Still from Gross, there have been no talks between New Jersey and 2012 fifth rounder Alexander Kerfoot since the Frozen Four tournament. The Devils will lose the rights to the 22 year old on August 15th if they are unable to reach a deal. Kerfoot had a strong senior season at Harvard where he tied for the team lead in scoring with 45 points (19-26-45) in 36 games and would attract a lot of interest if he were to hit the open market.
- Penguins defenseman Chad Ruhwedel took part in yesterday’s morning skate as he works towards returning to the lineup from a concussion sustained in Game Four against Ottawa, notes Bill West of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The 27 year old has skated in six postseason games so far and, when healthy, will likely be the first to draw in if there are any more injuries to Pittsburgh’s back end between now and the end of the Stanley Cup Final.
- Although he was skating on his own during the second half of the season, Islanders center Mikhail Grabovski hasn’t recovered enough from his concussion symptoms to be eligible to be bought out this summer, reports Newsday’s Arthur Staple. The 33 year old last played in March of 2016 but carries a pricey cap hit of $5MM though he’ll likely be placed on LTIR once again if he doesn’t get the green light to return from team doctors at the start of next season.