With the recent injuries to 4 of the Habs key forwards, it would only make sense that Bergevin would need to bring in reinforcements to the front end.
In signing the 36 year old Kovalchuk on a $700,000 1 year deal, it is a low risk move by the habs GM. Kovalchuk is known to have had success at the NHL level before and it will be very interesting to see if he can bounce back in Montreal.
The signing is low risk because it is a one-year deal at a low cap hit. Montreal won't need that cap space for this year and if things do not work out, worst case scenario is that Ilya walks away from the team in the summer without re-signing.
On paper this signing makes sense for Marc Bergevin, he brings in a forward with a history of scoring to help fill the holes in the lineup caused by the injuries to Brendan Gallagher, Johnathon Drouin, Paul Byron and Joel Armia. Each of these 4 players were a part of Montreal's top 9 forwards before getting injured.
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