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Kovalchuk returning to Devils Print
Headlines
Written by HPT Staff   
Monday, July 19, 2010 12:46
After a long wait, the New Jersey Devils announced that Ilya Kovalchuk is coming back.

The free-agent left wing will re-sign with the team that traded for him in February, ending 18 days of speculation that had him on the verge of joining the Los Angeles Kings while also considering the Kontinental Hockey League.

The 27-year-old compiled 41 goals and 44 assists last season, his sixth straight campaign with 40 or more goals. Acquired via trade from Atlanta on Feb. 4, Kovalchuk collected 10 goals and 17 assists in 27 games after landing in New Jersey.

A press conference was scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday for Kovalchuk to address the media at the Prudential Center.

In an interview with Toronto radio station "The Fan" 590-AM, Kovlachuk's agent, Jay Grossman, said that he would let the Devils announce the terms of the contract.

Yahoo! Sports blogger Dimitry Chesnokov wrote on his Twitter account that the contract will pay a total of $102 million over 17 years, broken down to $10 million per year for the first eight years and $7.5 for the next two. Mike Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that the contract pays $6 million the first two years, then $11.5 million the next five years, then $8.5, $6.5, $3.5, $0.75 million and $550,000 each of the final five seasons.

In either case, the average annual value works out to a cap hit of $6 million.

"Ilya was presented with numerous options, but they were coming from many different places," Grossman said. "Different teams, different options that developed in addition to that the one from the KHL which he considered very much as well. His objective going into the time frame was to sit down when he had all of it in front of him and make a decision."

Devils head coach John MacLean was predictably pleased by the news, telling the New Jersey Star-Ledger that "I have not heard from anybody throughout the organization a bad word about him."

"He signed here for a reason, to try to win a championship," MacLean told the newspaper. "This organization has a good history of that, so you know he wants to be part of the team. That's what I'm excited about."

Tim Leiweke, the president of Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns the Kings, told the Los Angeles Times that "we threw everything at him we had while leaving the cap space necessary to sign our kids. He is a great player and I am disappointed he didn't come to LA. It was not for lack of effort or cash."

Although the Kings are believed to have in excess of $16 million of salary-cap space, they are anticipating giving big raises to Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson, whose contracts expire next summer.

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Last Updated on Wednesday, July 21, 2010 14:23