Ilya Kovalchuk didn't feel like a New Jersey Devil.

He was the antithesis of so many of the franchise’s hallmarks. He was an offensive dynamo on a team known for its defense. He was an acquired asset, rather than the kind of homegrown player the Devils had used as the backbone of their team. He signed for 15 years and $100 million, on a team where the top end guys took less for the betterment of the roster.

Ilya Kovalchuk didn’t want to be a New Jersey Devil.

It was July 2010, and the NHL had never seen an unrestricted free agent go to market with Kovalchuk’s skill, stats and relative youth. The problem for Kovalchuk: Only a handful of teams could afford his demands in a capped NHL; and soon it was only the Devils, who traded for him that February from the Atlanta Thrashers (RIP), the Los Angeles Kings and SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL bidding for his services.

No one else would pay him. He was a Devil by default, and certainly not a Devil for life.

When the Devils signed him to his 15-year, $100-million contract – after that absurd 17-year deal was voided by the NHL – one could see when Kovalchuk would theoretically leave the franchise for the KHL: Either 2018-19 or 2019-20, when his salary tumbled $3 million from the previous year in both seasons.

Little did anyone know that schedule would be sped up dramatically: Kovalchuk announced his retirement from the NHL on Thursday, leaving $77 million on the table in favor of the bottomless riches of SKA St. Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League.

“Remember, this wasn’t a decision by the New Jersey Devils,” stressed team President Lou Lamoriello.

It was Lamoriello that made the decision to make Kovalchuk a New Jersey Devil.

That’s why he traded four assets – including defenseman Johnny Oduya, now with the Stanley Cup champs in Chicago – for Kovalchuk at the 2010 trade deadline. He appreciated his offense, felt his defense was underrated and saw a leader in Kovalchuk where others didn’t.

He just didn’t want Ilya Kovalchuk at a ridiculous cost and term when the winger reached free agency. Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek pushed to re-sign him; Lamoriello was forced into creative accounting with a massive 17-year contract for the Russian star to make it work under the cap.

Lamoriello was nearly insubordinate in the introductory press conference, via Tom Guliti:

I asked Lamoriello what he would think if someone brought up Kovalchuk’s contract in the next round of CBA negotiations (in two years) and pointed to it as a flaw. “I might agree,” he said. “But there is nothing that we have done wrong. This is within the rules. This is in the CBA. There are precedents that have been set. But I would agree we shouldn’t have these. But I’m also saying that because it’s legal and this is something that ownership felt comfortable doing for the right reasons.”

That 17-year contract was eventually voided by the NHL, and replaced with a 15-year, $100-million one. Kovalchuk’s $6.66 million cap hit – the Number of the Beast! – was, in fact, a bargain given his résumé and offensive contributions to the team.

Oh, those contributions. He had 31 goals in an otherwise terrible season for the Devils in 2010-11, the year John MacLean made a hash of things at the start. The following year, under Peter DeBoer, the Devils saw Kovalchuk’s full potential: 83 points in 77 games, and then an epic 19-point playoff performance that fueled their unexpected run to the conference championship – before a back injury slowed him in the later rounds.

For that postseason, Kovalchuk was something many thought he’d never be: Worth the contract. He showed heart, he showed determination and he showed a will to win. Criticisms and stereotypes surrounding his game melted away.

As Zach Parise left for Minnesota and Father Time chased Martin Brodeur, the Devils-As-Team-Kovalchuk felt entirely plausible, going forward.

Then the lockout happened.

It changed two factors in the Devils’ relationship with Kovalchuk.

First off, his contract suddenly sucked. The “cap recapture” clause in the new CBA guaranteed that if Kovalchuk left for the KHL in, say, 2019, the Devils would be penalized with a large sum counting against their cap number even as Kovalchuk played in Russia.

During the lockout, he did play in Russia, with SKA, which brings us to the second factor: Kovalchuk’s feelings about the NHL and the KHL.

Story continues