Kovalchuk is back
Olympic Games and Gagarin Cup champion Ilya Kovalchuk is back on the ice signing a one-year deal with Spartak.
22 years later, Ilya Kovalchuk will represent the Red-and-Whites again. At the dawn of his career, the future legend spent two seasons with Spartak in the Higher League – with the second one being particularly successful with fourteen tallies in only twelve postseason games. The chance to debut for the main squad was given to him by the former Olympic Champion and 1972 Summit Series participant Alexander Yakushev. Symbolically, it was Yakushev himself who, among the Spartak leadership, confirmed Kovalchuk’s signing and announced his first match – next Dec 24 against Kunlun Red Star at the Luzhniki Arena. In the 2000-2001 season, a young Kovalchuk became the top scorer of the Higher League’s final tournament, thus securing Spartak’s promotion to the Super League. However, Ilya himself then went overseas, where he spent the majority of his career. During lockouts, he would come to Kazan and St. Petersburg, and his last match in the KHL to date took place in Balashikha on Apr 28, 2021. After that, Kovalchuk, as Avangard’s captain, lifted the Gagarin Cup. Over the past two and a half years, the Olympic champion, two-time world champion, and three-time KHL champion has not played a single match and even went to the Olympics as a manager. In Beijing, where the Russian national team won silver, he was a colleague of Spartak’s current head coach, Alexei Zhamnov. Together, they also played at the Olympics in Salt Lake City, which was Ilya’s first in his career, back in 2002. Now, Zhamnov and Kovalchuk will work together again, but this time as a coach and a player.
I understand the talk about my age, but I feel like age is just a number,” Kovalchuk told the media. “Look at Joe Thornton at 45, Jagr playing insanely at 50-something, many guys did so. It all depends on how you take care of yourself, your attitude, and the goals you set for yourself.”
Kovalchuk looks very determined for his new adventure with Spartak, as he explained.
“First and foremost, you don’t want to let yourself down — not because you doubt yourself, but you don't want to let down the team you join. Because when a certain personality comes in, and there’s a lot of youth, for example — they might start behaving differently. And it’s very important to weigh the pros and cons because hockey is a team sport. My personal ambitions have always been secondary.”
Kovalchuk will join a winning team. As the KHL stopped for its lone pause of the season, the Red-and-Whites are on the top of the Western Conference’s standings with 56 points – tied with local rivals Dynamo Moscow, but with three more regulation wins – the first of several tie-breaking criteria. Spartak is also leading the league with 149 goals scored – 23 more than the second team in the rankings, Eastern Conference’s leader Metallurg. The forward, however, will most likely not be too worried about the pressure on his new team – quite the opposite. With an impressive hardware collection in his career, Kovalchuk will be eager to add another title to his long CV.
The Tver native, however, stopped playing following his 2021 Gagarin Cup triumph with Avangard. And resuming playing is always difficult.
“To be honest, it was a bit challenging for me now because, I guess, for about 5-6 months, I haven’t exactly been training much...” the forward admits. “I was training, but it was more like physical activity. My younger son moved to Brazil, there were various circumstances, and there are now a lot of flights. It’s not always possible to find a place where you can train well. So, when about four weeks ago, I gradually started to increase the intensity of workouts, of course, everything ached, but now — knock on wood — no problems at all. I really have to thank my coach Dmitry Yashankin.”
Reactions from his future teammates have already appeared on the media, with Slovak defenseman Michal Cajkovsky praising Kovalchuk’s signing: “[Kovalchuk] is a fantastic player who has achieved a lot in hockey. It’s really awesome that he joined; it’s great to have such a player on the team. He can give his contribute in the locker room, and the young guys will respect him, look up to him, and learn from him.”
The towering d-man is currently leading Spartak in scoring from the blueline with 24 (6+18) points, and his production with the man advantage can even increase with the help from Kovalchuk in powerplay situations.
Another player who praised Kovalchuk’s return is forward Pavel Poryadin. The productive forward is currently trailing only Nikolai Goldobin in scoring for the Red-and-Whites, a team that has joined only this summer after eight seasons withing the Neftekhimik system.
“I can’t say that I was surprised [with Kovalchuk’s return], as there have been talks about it for a while,” Poryadin says. “But I wasn’t aware of the situation, and when they showed the video with him and Zhamnov on the ice, I was genuinely thrilled. It will be nice to play on the same team as such a master.”
“Despite Ilya being 40 years old, I think he will give us a lot of valuable advice both on the ice and in the locker room. Personally, I haven’t had a chance to talk to him yet, just exchanged greetings. Very soon, he will start training with the team – that’s when we’ll get to know each other.”
With such a well-coached team, a favorable placement in the standings, and welcoming teammates, Kovalchuk’s return is primed for success. Soon we’ll discover the finale.
