Which NHL Team Does Ilya Kovalchuk Get To Steal Money From Next?

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On September 3, 2010, Ilya Kovalchuk signed in New Jersey for 15 years, $100 million. To be fair, the New Jersey Devils were drunk off their ass when they gave him that offer. I mean you simply cannot blame Kovalchuk for signing that ticket. Somebody offers you $100 million, you take it. It's not like he held Lou Lamoriello up at gunpoint and demanded that it be a 15-year deal. 

But that contract was voided after just 3 seasons when Ilya Kovalchuk decided to go back home to Russia. You can blame the lockout, you can blame escrow, you can blame Kovalchuk, you can blame whoever you want. The fact of the matter is that Ilya Kovalchuk skipped out on New Jersey with 12 years left on his contract. 

Then he goes home to Russia for a few years. He won the Gagarin Cup twice, and also won an Olympic gold medal. So his work in Russia was done and he decided to come back to the NHL. So on July 1, 2018, he signed with Los Angeles for 3 years, $18.75 million. For a guy who was 35 at the time, you simply cannot blame Kovalchuk for signing that ticket. Somebody offers you $18+ million to play hockey at the age of 35, you take it. But...well...

That contract was voided after just 1.5 seasons when Ilya Kovalchuk was placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of mutual contract termination. So his last two contracts in the NHL were for a combined 18 years and $118.75 million. Ilya Kovalchuk has played in 276 regular season NHL games over that time, and now both contracts have been terminated. I'm not sure how great you guys are at math but 18 years with 82 possible regular season games adds up to 1476. So uhhh yeah, he's just a little shy of that. 

And now Kovalchuk has one last opportunity to get paid by another NHL team before he's most likely done for good. Honestly at this point I kind of feel bad for the guy. I mean there was a time when he was one of the best players in the world, and I feel like everybody mostly forgets about that. He's more of a joke at this point and he's been a healthy scratch on a Kings team that is dead last in the Western Conference for weeks now. His agent pretty much fucked up his entire legacy because the first thing that everybody is going to remember about Ilya Kovalchuk in the NHL is retiring 3 years into a 15-year contract, and a failed return. 

So is anybody going to take a chance on him now? A contender who has league minimum salary to throw around just for the rest of this season? Imagine if that's how Kovalchuk's NHL career ends. He gets picked up by a team like Colorado, only plays a few minutes a night on the powerplay, and then wins a Stanley Cup to go along with his Olympic and World Championship gold medals. If the Avalanche could get Ray Bourque a Stanley Cup to end his career with, maybe they can do the same for Kovy. 

@BarstoolJordie