Ilya Kovalchuk has signed a new contract with the Los Angeles Kings.

The 3rd year is too much, just like marleau

Huge risk from the kings. They are an older team already and now you are signing kovalchuk to a 3 year 6.25m AAV contract? either this will be a genius move, or one of the worst moves the kings have done.

Oof... Kovy is so overrated, not worth it at all. At least it's only 3 years, too high risk to be worth it.

Big risk for LA, but if any team needs to take this risk its them. Their team is built to win now and scoring 3 goals in a playoff series isn't going to win you anything. I fine with this signing, as long as Doughty signs his extension.

Lmao Kovy doesn't want to win the cup he just wants to live luxuriously

LA wants to win another cup. So they give a three-year contract to a 35-year-old who's been out of the league for five years and has quit on both of his past NHL teams.

As some already pointed out this signing is risky. Personally i would hate the 3rd year if i was a kings fan.

Yes,the sharks can still beat the kings!At least,they didn't sign reaves.

I'm just glad the bruins didn't offer him this.

there goes your drew doughty money.

not a fan of the move. Especially with a salary that stays the same throughout the three years. Going to be hard to move that to a budget team if things head south.

Wouldn't do that signing but when you're an aging team that will look very different in a few years anyways, then why not, shoot for the cup.

The question is Kovi really NHL good?
I know stats aren't everything but look at the top scorers in the KHL. Yes Kovi led the league but the next group were AHLers at best. Leading goal sorer in the KHL, Nigel Dawes.

Wow, I didn't see LA signing him, out of all the teams. This was unexpected to me. I think he will fit in nicely though.

Watch him go out and score 30 goals in the first two years of this contract. I don't think this is as bad as everyone is saying.
LA NEEDED goal scoring and this was the best way to get it.

What a bad move by the Kings when you have your best player in his last year contract. I mean, how they intend to pay what he'll probably ask (something about 10M/year) after that sign??? I'm not saying Kovy isn't a very good player, cause we all know he is (sorry for all his haters, but fact is a fact), but the Kings priority this season should be re-sign Doughty. Then they should think about another great moves.

After this bad move, the greatest winners are undoubtly Kovy and all the other teams that intend to try sign Doughty.

Could be a good signing but that 3rd year may be too much.

People saying the 3rd year is too much.... You are forgetting that the 2nd year is too much. 35+ contracts kill.

Not a good deal at all, it's a 35+ contract which means LA is stuck with the cap-hit no matter what happens... There is nothing stopping Kovalchuk from playing one season, scoring 50 points not having it work out and then heading back to the KHL... If that happens the Kings are stuck with that cap-hit, so it's a risky contract..

I mean they should have structured the contract like this:

Year 1: $4,000,000
Year 2: $6,000,000
Year 3: $8,825,000
3 year AAV: $6,275,000

That way it gives Kovalchuk incentive to play his contract out and not just split or "retire" if things don't work... And yes I'm questioning his character.

The most I would offer Kovalchuk if I was a GM is a 1-year deal, and I'm sure many GM's that were interested were only offering 1 or 2-year deals - taking it year by year would be the responsible thing to do with a 35+ contract with a Russian that's split once before...

I mean if he plays out his contract and puts up 60-70 points a season this could turn out to be a good deal but as of now it's a really risky move by LA...

Don't get this signing, they didn't need him.