Ray Shero’s phone buzzed. It was a text message about Ilya Kovalchuk.

The 34-year-old star winger had spent the last four seasons with St. Petersburg SKA in the Kontinental Hockey League after “retiring” from the NHL in 2013, just three years into a massive 15-year, $100-million contract he signed with the New Jersey Devils in 2010.

Kovalchuk wanted to return to the NHL for the 2017-18 season, but there was one giant obstacle to overcome: Since he was on the NHL’s voluntary retirement list, the Devils were the gatekeepers for that comeback, retaining his rights for another year. They would either sign him and trade him, or Kovalchuk would return to the KHL for one more season and then become an unrestricted NHL free agent in Summer 2018, per the collective bargaining agreement.

In other words, the Devils would get something for him, or lose him for nothing.

Shero glanced down at the text message. Someone was inquiring about a rumor they had heard: That Shero, the Devils’ general manager, had been offered a first-round draft pick from the New York Rangers in exchange for Kovalchuk, and that Shero turned them down.

“That was a lie,” said Shero on Thursday.

“I never turned down a first-round pick. I never turned down a seventh-round pick. I never turned down anything. Why? It’s really simple: There was nothing to turn down.”

***

Ilya Kovalchuk has 816 points in 816 NHL games, including 417 goals. With due respect to Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton, he was the best offensive player available this summer: Younger than the Sharks’ duo, an elite level playmaker and a sniper that could play the point on the power play.

His return to the NHL had been anticipated for years, and the interest was there this summer: According to sources, over half the league made some level of inquiry to Kovalchuk’s representatives over the last few months.

But, again, his return was a complicated matter.

There were two ways he could have played in the NHL this season: First, by having the rest of the NHL’s teams agree to remove him from the “voluntary retirement list” and declare him an unrestricted free agent, which wasn’t going to happen; so, sparing that, his only option was to agree to terms with another team, have the Devils sign him to that deal, and then trade him to that team.

Which brings up the first question in this odd odyssey: Why not make things easy and just play with the Devils? Especially when Kovalchuk had voiced a desire to return to a team in the Northeastern U.S.?

Well, to put it kindly, the Devils are in a “transition period” as a franchise, and neither they nor Kovalchuk had much appetite to add him to a roster that may be a few years away from contending.

(Plus, star winger Taylor Hall plays on the left side, and there was really no need for another positional mess like the one the team had when it acquired Kovalchuk and already had Zach Parise as a top-line left wing.)

But according to sources with Kovalchuk and the Devils, there was also some concern about how the fans would accept him, having basically abandoned the franchise after three seasons of a long-term deal to play in Russia.

It wasn’t a good fit in New Jersey, which meant if Kovalchuk was going to play next season, it would have to be with another NHL team willing to do business with him and then with Shero.

So Jay Grossman went shopping.

***

Grossman is the president of Puck Agency and has been Kovalchuk’s agent for years, having negotiated both the 17-year contract that the NHL rejected in 2010 and the 15-year deal that then-general manager Lou Lamoriello offered subsequently.

Shero tasked him with finding a team that wanted to sign Kovalchuk. Which, again, was easier said then done.

Consider the complications here in trying to create a market for Ilya Kovalchuk:

1 – What is a player who last played in the NHL back in 2013 actually worth, versus what he’s asking for? And what is that player worth when he’s already walked away from one NHL contract?

Sources tell Puck Daddy that the Kovalchuk contract terms were commensurate with this summer’s UFA market. Does that mean a $6.25 million cap hit like Patrick Marleau and Alex Radulov? Does that mean a term between 3-5 years like they received?

2 – Kovalchuk could only sign a new deal after July 1. So the negotiations with teams didn’t get serious enough early enough, because they needed to figure out their own roster commitments, go through the expansion draft process and then set a course for the NHL free agency period without any clue what the market might be for Kovalchuk. Before he knew it, the market for Kovalchuk narrowed quickly.

Story continues