The Capitals have added some offensive depth for the stretch run as they have acquired winger Ilya Kovalchuk from the Canadiens in exchange for their 2020 third-round pick. Both teams have confirmed the swap. The 36-year-old will now be joining his third team of the season.
Kovalchuk started the season with the Kings but some early season struggles led to a long-term stint as a healthy scratch. Once the remainder of his signing bonus was paid out, the two sides agreed to a mutual contract termination. However, it took until early January for him to find a new home when he joined Montreal.
He made an immediate impact with the Canadiens, recording five goals and five assists over his first dozen games with the team. While he tailed off a bit since then, he leaves them with 13 points over 22 contests which is a pretty good return on a pro-rated league minimum contract of $700K. TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie reports (Twitter link) that Montreal will retain half of that on their books as part of the deal.
While he averaged nearly 19 minutes a night with the Canadiens, his role will likely be much lower with Washington. Kovalchuk should slot in on their third line and give them another weapon for an already strong power play. It’s a reasonable price tag to pay for veteran depth while for Montreal, they turn someone they signed for nothing into another draft pick, giving them 13 for the upcoming draft which they will host in June.
Kovalchuk is now on the books for four different teams at the same time which is a first. He’s on New Jersey’s cap for salary cap recapture from his initial retirement. He remains on Los Angeles’ books as his contract was a 35+ deal so despite the termination, his full cap hit remains. Meanwhile, Montreal and Washington are both responsible for a pro-rated $350K from this deal.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Montreal gets garbage in return as usual
Considering they got him for free spent about 150k of his pro rated contract to try to get back into a playoff race and then when that failed flipped for a 3rd. That doesn’t sound like a garbage return at all
This is a guy that no one wanted to touch with a 50 ft pole. Getting a 3rd round pick for free is not a garbage return.
I see this as a fantastic deal for Montreal. For both teams really. Washington is going to be all in on a cup window before it becomes rebuild time, and a 36 year old kovalchuk for a 3rd and basically no cap hit is like winning the lottery when your team is already as stacked as it is.
Montreal now has even more ammunition to shape their roster. They can package picks together to move up for guys they really like, trade for pieces to keep themselves competitive, pretty much whatever they want to do.
that was with LA. its probably been well the opposite since.
I need to see an Ovechkin- kuzy- kovalchuk line immediately
Why not get Alex Semin as well?
Found money. The type of deals that Bergevin usually gets the better of. It’s the bigger deals that sometimes leaves you wanting more.
I dislike this deal for the Caps, the Habs and for Kovalchuk.
This is a 4th round pick, more or less. Pretty measly return for one of the few guys with life on your team. And Ilya should have clung to a place he was wanted.
Unless Oshie or Wilson got hurt and we don’t know it, this makes no sense for the Caps. He’s going to play in your bottom 6?
Except it’s not a 4th round pick lol getting a top ~90 pick for a guy you picked up off the trash heap a month ago is found money.
It’s pretty clear Bergevin wanted to do right for Ilya, and I could 100% see him back in Montreal after this cup run. Win-win-win.
I mean its a scoring depth move for them. They didn’t give up a super vauable asset and his cap hit is cheap. Montreal gets an asset, even if its only a third rounder, for a guy they basically picked up off the scrap heap not too long ago. Sure they could’ve kept him, but if they’re not going anywhere this season, might as well get as many assets as possible. And I’m pretty sure Kovalchuk had little to no say about him being traded.
Good trade. They are done for the season, and could always resign him next year!