from Tom Gulitti of Fire & Ice,

Well, Ilya Kovalchuk said finally said something definitive today and, though it wasn’t that he isn’t coming back to New Jersey, it wasn’t exactly comforting either.

After playing again today for SKA St. Petersburg’s 4-2 win over Salavat Yulaev in Ufa, Russia, Kovalchuk expressed a desire to remain in the KHL for the remainder of the season while acknowledging his contractual obligation to the Devils.

“I want to stay in St. Petersburg but I have contractual obligations in the NHL, which will be hard to break,” Kovalchuk told Sport-Express in Russia, according to the sports daily’s U.S. correspondent, Slava Malamud.

Malamud later clarified that Kovalchuk was speaking about remaining with SKA St. Petersburg for the remainder of this season and then returning to the Devils in the fall.

continued