Ilya Kovalchuk

The Future of the New Jersey Devils

Hello Readers,

My name is Kyle Mulholland and due to recent news...I decided to make a contribution to the Ice Bath Report. Anyway, I am a huge sports fanatic. I have finished my junior year of High school and am a returning Varsity Soccer player -- as well as a glorified JV baseball player. I hit .547 this year but who keeping track and honestly who cares. But my absolute love is hockey. I have never really played competitive ice hockey, but as long as I can remember I have been watching the New Jersey Devils. Besides the NHL, I also follow the NFL and the MLB. Being only 5’5 basketball has yet to grow on me and I just really hate the NBA to be truthful.

Now lets get to the business….

I am currently writing this a few days after the hockey world was shocked by the departure of New Jersey Devils star forward Ilya Kovalchuk. Last Thursday Kovalchuk announced his retirement from the NHL so he could move back to Russia with his family and continue to play hockey. As one of the most die-hard Devils fan a person could ever meet, I was immediately shocked by this news. I found out by checking my phone in the kitchen of my shitty bus boy job to see a myriad of text messages from a Rangers fan who took the utmost pleasure in Kovalchuk’s departure. At first I wasn’t buying it, there was no way in which this is possible. But after 20 minutes of Sportscenter still showing some bullshit on the Miami Heat, and with an ESPN broadcaster completely mispronouncing his name, the news became all too real.

My initial reaction that night was how and why. Dear God who in the right mind would walk away from $77 million in guaranteed money. Something like this has never really happened in the NHL, especially not with a marque name like Kovalchuk. I didn’t even think a player could do this -- leave their team with a contract to go play overseas. As I did further research and read countless articles that were written that night, I learned the Devils allowed him to leave. They voided his contract and signed off on his retirement papers.

Three days later as I have now let everything soak in, I truly think this may be the best thing to ever happen to the New Jersey Devils franchise. Kovalchuk was not a traditional Devil, he didn’t play defense and was built on flash rather than hard work -- not take away from his overall talent.

 In his three seasons as a Devil, he brought something that we as fans have never seen before. He was an absolute superstar who pumped the Rock (better known as the Prudential Center) with energy and excitement. His ability to completely take a game over with his speed and exceptional shot was new to us as Devil fans. He scored clutch overtime goals like this. And in reality it was him who led the Devils through their improbable 2012 playoff run -- not captain Zach Parise.

With all of the positives we can take away from Ilya Kovalchuk’s time as a Devil, the fact of the matter is in his three seasons with New Jersey they missed the playoffs twice -- something that has not happened in my lifetime prior. With Kovalchuk’s retirement… yeah still weird to say, the Devils will free up $77 million over the next 12 years and won’t have to take his $6 million cap hit when he is 38 years old and barley producing. In the wake of signing his massive 15 year $100 million deal in 2010, Kovalchuk proclaimed himself as a “Devil for Life.”

But the longer he was in New Jersey the more I learned he was never really a Devil. The only reason why he signed with New Jersey rather than Los Angeles was because of money. Now Kovalchuk is leaving for even more money. In an interview with Kovalchuk’s mother via Yahoo Sports, she explained how he had the pay the league escrow of 20% and how New Jersey income taxes were an 45% -- cutting his salary significantly. Kovalchuk chose to go play in the KHL where he will earn money possibly up to $15 million a year and pay minimal taxes. This man is a complete sellout. He was never about winning a Stanley Cup and more importantly he was never about the New Jersey Devils. He had the talent to be one of the best goal scorers the NHL has ever seen, but in reality he didn’t give a shit. I compare him to Allen Iverson, full of unbelievable raw talent, but just never truly had the drive and will to succeed.

Now the Devils will go back to their golden age. Where the term “Devils Hockey” was coined. They will go back to the time when they were built from the goalie out. They won games due to great goaltending, strong Defense and timely scoring. Back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s the Devils won 3 Stanley cups. They did it without a superstar and I believe it is possible today. The last time the Devils won the cup was in 2003, where their leading scorer was Patrik Elias with 28 goals and 57 points. A sub-par season by anyone’s standards. With the acquisition of stud Goaltender Cory Schneider, this Devils team is looking a lot like the old days.

The New Jersey Devils 2013- 2014 roster does not have one star player, they will not have an All Star, they probably won’t have a player reach the 60 point plateau which is what I say a player must reach to be considered “Solid”. This Kovalchuk-less team will be lead by a mix of veterans and no-name young guns, but overall I believe with the loss of Kovalchuk this franchise is heading in the right direction.

-Kyle Mullholland