If the lines at Canadiens practice on Monday are any indicator, freshly signed Ilya Kovalchuk is set to make his Habs debut on Montreal's top line on Monday night against the visiting Winnipeg Jets.
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The Habs made waves this past week, when the traded defenseman Mike Rielly to the Ottawa Senators, acquired defenseman Marco Scandella from the Buffalo Sabres, and signed UFA forward Ilya Kovalchuk to a $700k contract for the remainder of this season.
Now it looks as though the Habs may expect Kovalchuk to play a more integral role with the club while they deal with injuries to key forwards Joel Armia, Jonathan Drouin, Brendan Gallagher and Paul Byron. In fact, not only is Kovalchuk lining up with Danault and Tatar on the top line, but #17 is also expected to be deployed on the Habs top power play unit as well.
Kovalchuk may not be in the prime of his career anymore, but his 143 career powerplay goals (ranking 5th among active NHL players) did not come by fluke and the 36-year-old still has some fuel left in the tank.
Kovalchuk also ranks 5th for goal-scoring among active NHL players and his 0.49 goals per game ranks 3rd among active players as well.
This truly was a low-risk signing by GM Marc Bergevin and we'll get our first glimpse at what Kovalchuk can bring to the table for the Canadiens when the puck drops at the Bell Centre on Monday night.
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