BREAKING: New Jersey Devils GM makes OFFICIAL announcement regarding Ilya Kovalchuk.

New Jersey Devils GM makes OFFICIAL announcement regarding Ilya Kovalchuk

The rumors surrounded Ilya Kovalchuk and a potential return to the National Hockey League have picked up some steam since the end of the regular season, but on Monday we got our first signs that Kovalchuk may be very serious about making a comeback.

Official reports from NHL insider Pierre LeBrun confirm three important things this morning:

1) “Devils GM Ray Shero says he has confirmed with agent Jay Grossman that Ilya Kovalchuk definitely wants to return to the NHL next season”

2) “Shero says Grossman free to speak to other teams about a potential deal. Devils would do a sign and trade. But deal has to make sense for NJ.”

3) “Kovalchuk can’t officially sign an NHL contract until July 1. So lots of time for all this to play out. But the Kovalchuk sweepstakes are on.”

What’s next now? Ideally for New Jersey would be some kind of new deal that either allows them to put Kovalchuk on their roster or trade him to a rival NHL team. Both of those would be significantly better than their current option which is merely watching Kovalchuk play in the KHL while they get nothing in return.