Discuss: The Kings’ Ilya Kovalchuk has been placed on unconditional waivers

The Ilya Kovalchuk era in Los Angeles is reportedly over.

The Kings announced Kovalchuk “has left the team and been placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract with the club.”

Here are the details via our Pierre LeBrun on Twitter:

The Kings remain with his $6.25-M cap hit this season and next, because he's a 35-and-over player. But they would no longer have to pay him in real life. Kovalchuk's remaining $2.65-M bonus was paid over the weekend. He has $4.25 M in salary next yr but will walk away from that — Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) December 16, 2019

Kovalchuk also had this Instagram post from today … the English, Instagram translation says he wrote, “And what’s next?” in the caption.

So ends Kovalchuk’s time in Los Angeles, which had high expectations (probably unreasonably high) with the Kings thinking he could score between 25 and 30 goals (as a then-35-year-old) and be their hammer on the power play.

L.A. signed him in the summer of 2018 to a three-year, $18.75 million contract, beating out teams like the San Jose Sharks for his services. Kovalchuk had spent the previous five seasons in the KHL after a decorated NHL career that saw him score over 417 goals.

This whole experience of having Kovalchuk in L.A. was filled with drama with him being healthy scratched, first, by interim coach Willie Desjardins last season and then Todd McLellan this season. Plus, there was that situation a year ago when the Kings went on a road-trip and Kovalchuk stayed home to work with a skills coach.

In mid-November of this season Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported the Kings had told Kovalchuk that he wouldn’t play again for them. L.A. just said Kovalchuk was a healthy scratch like their other players who weren’t in the lineup, but Friedman’s initial report ended up being correct in that Kovalchuk indeed would never suit up for L.A. again in a game. In 81 games Kovalchuk had 19 goals and 43 points for the Kings. He was a minus-36 while averaging 16:04 per game.

As noted above by LeBrun, the Kings will keep Kovalchuk’s salary cap hit into next season, though they won’t have to pay him $4.25 million in real salary. For a team that’s rebuilding and shedding salary this probably won’t matter all that much since they won’t be near the cap in 2020-21.

Either way, Los Angeles playing hardball with Kovalchuk is probably a sign of them lessening the comfort level on their veteran players and showing them if you’re not producing they will find ways to change the roster.

What are your thoughts on this decision by the Kings? Also, give us your best predictions on where Kovalchuk could end up. Remember, when he was a free agent in the summer of 2018, there were a lot of suitors. Our Jordan Samuels-Thomas also did a piece on potential Kovy locations.