The Montreal Canadiens have traded forward Ilya Kovalchuk to the Washington Capitals for a 2020 third-round pick. The move puts Kovalchuk on his third team in the 2019-20 season. He started the campaign with the Los Angeles Kings, before they waived him and his $18.25 million contract in December. Then he landed with the Canadiens in January on a veteran's league minimum of $700,000. The Canadiens agreed to pick up 50% of Kovalchuk's remaining salary and cap hit.
How did each general manager do in this trade?
Capitals get: F Ilya Kovalchuk
Canadiens get: 2020 third-round pick
Washington Capitals: A-
It is Alex Ovechkin's world, and we're all just living in it. One day after Ovechkin (finally) reached 700 career goals, the Capitals' front office made a splash by acquiring the winger's good friend, Ilya Kovalchuk. It's not just that Kovalchuk and Ovechkin are countrymen and have played on national teams together, they also both own homes in the Miami area and their families spent this past Christmas together. But this move isn't only about appeasing the captain, socially.
After Kovalchuk's long-awaited return to the NHL with the Kings resulted in a series of benchings and an unceremonious divorce -- leaving many wondering if today's faster game had passed the 36-year-old Kovalchuk by -- the winger meshed in well with the Canadiens, with 13 points (six of them goals) in 22 games. Kovalchuk proved in his short stint in Montreal that he isn't washed up just yet.
Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan wasn't happy with the team's play over the past few weeks. Yes, Washington has needed defensive help for a while -- and addressed that with the Brenden Dillon acquisition -- but the offense had stalled, as well. Specifically, the team needed more offense out of its bottom six. And that's probably where Kovalchuk will get his first shot: on the third line, alongside Lars Eller and Carl Hagelin.
MacLellan didn't have much cap space to make a big addition. The fact that he could get a potential impact player on a the league's minimum $700,000 salary -- and have the Canadiens still retain 50% of that -- is crafty and perhaps the only big move he could have maneuvered without giving up more NHL assets.
The Capitals are going to be appointment television this spring. Kovalchuk isn't the prolific scorer he once was, but he's still got it. From Ovechkin's rookie season in 2005-06 to 2012-13, before Kovalchuk bolted to the KHL, Ovechkin and Kovalchuk ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the NHL in goals. While we would have loved to see this duo team up a decade ago, we'll take it now. And Caps coach Todd Reirden already knows Kovalchuk; they were teammates during Kovalchuk's rookie campaign with the Atlanta Thrashers.
Overall, this is a low-risk, high-reward move for the Caps. Reinvigorated by one last good shot to win the Stanley Cup, Kovalchuk could be a big-time weapon. (He ranks No. 3 all time in the NHL in overtime goals. No. 1 is none other than ... Ovechkin.) If Kovalchuk looks more like his Kings self, then the Caps can bury him low in the lineup or bench him, knowing they didn't give up a ton and still have an awfully good team.
Montreal Canadiens: A-
How should we feel about the Canadiens and their GM, Marc Bergevin, these days?
On one hand, a promising start to the season has been derailed, and we have to wonder how close this team is to contending or if it is even on the right track in the long term. On the other hand, the Canadiens' GM recognized their flaws and realized that this isn't their year. He cut bait before he looked foolish.
But Bergevin has had a good trade season. In the span of a week, he acquired a second-round pick and conditional fourth-round pick for Marco Scandella, whom he acquired from the Buffalo Sabres for a fourth-rounder weeks earlier. Bergevin followed it up by securing a third-rounder for Kovalchuk, whom he signed off the street for the veteran minimum salary in the middle of this season. All Bergevin had to do was eat a little salary, which ownership has obviously OK'd.
Bergevin is putting his team on the best possible path to succeed in the long term. The Canadiens now have 13 picks in the 2020 draft, including six picks in the first three rounds. By the way, that draft is being held in Montreal. All of this should earn some favor back with the fan base, whether the Canadiens use all of those picks to bolster a promising prospect group or package them to bring in some veteran help via trade.
The Canadiens still get a crack at signing Kovalchuk and Scandella as unrestricted free agents this summer should they so desire. Kovalchuk reportedly really liked playing in Montreal and felt comfortable there. The Habs have as good a shot as anybody in inking the winger this summer, as long as the price (and term) fit for both sides.
The only downside here is that Montreal appears to be officially surrendering a shot at the playoffs this spring; but at this point, it was only a pipe dream. At the time of the Kovalchuk trade, the Canadiens were eight points out of the playoffs. It was doable, but not likely.