Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

The Latest On Ilya Kovalchuk

05/30/2017 at 8:24am EDT

from TSN,

New Jersey Devils general manager Ray Shero said Monday he hasn’t closed any doors when it comes to Ilya Kovalchuk, and that includes potentially signing and keeping the Russian winger.

Kovalchuk has declared his intention to return to the National Hockey League after four years in Russia, but in order to return he must sign with the Devils, who own his rights. Kovalchuk could, technically, sign with any team but all other 30 teams would have to sign off on it – a situation Shero doesn’t expect to see play out.

“It’s simpler, I think, than it sounds,” Shero told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun. “He signed his voluntary retirement papers when he left the Devils a few years ago… Kovalchuk, we’ve all seen him play many times, is certainly a tremendous player and one of the better forwards to play in the league the last 10 years for sure and he’s only 34 and (Jaromir) Jagr is still playing and (he’s) got like 11 years on him and doing pretty well.

“I think our understanding with the league and (Kovalchuk’s agent) Jay Grossman is that he can sign right now with any team but the other 30 teams would have to sign off on that and as we all know, it’s a pretty competitive league, (so that) probably won’t happen. It’s not a situation where they need our permission to talk to teams, he’s free to talk to whoever he wants and to that extent, they're the ones driving the bus.”

continued with video of LeBrun talking with Shero...

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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