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Ilya Kovalchuk is Officially Off Devils’ Books
(Ed Mulholland-US PRESSWIRE)

The Ilya Kovalchuk deal that led to absolute catastrophe for the New Jersey Devils is officially a thing of the past. At 12:00 PM EDT on Jul. 1, 2025, with free agency officially opening, the calendar has flipped to the 2025-26 season. That will be the first season since 2009-10 where the Devils do not have Kovalchuk impact their cap.

The National Hockey League (NHL) deemed his initially-proposed 17-year deal as cap circumvention. As a result, the Devils forfeited $3 million, a third-round draft pick in the 2011 NHL Draft, and their first-round pick in the 2014 Draft.

Without the punishment, the Devils would have potentially been able to draft a player like David Pastrnak, Dylan Larkin or Alex Tuch in 2014. To make matters worse, starting in 2013, the Russian forward took up $250,000 of the Devils’ annual cap as a “recapture fine” after he retired out of the blue to go play in Russia.

While it was all widely considered one of the biggest fiascos in professional sports history, the Devils no longer have to feel the direct effects from it. And they should be super grateful that it’s all over now, as every penny matters with their very tight cap situation. That extra quarter of a million dollars could make or break landing some much-needed depth scoring.

While some may argue that not having a player like Larkin or Pastrnak still hurts them in the present day, there’s a possibility that both Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes would have never become Devils if it weren’t for the punishment.

If it happened in the present day, where social media allows for league scrutiny to become so widespread, maybe the Devils would have never faced such a harsh punishment. Heck, the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball (MLB) cheated, won a Championship, and were hit with much less.

But it’s all over, and Devils fans can now permanently block the name “Kovalchuk” out of their conscience if they so choose.

This article first appeared on The Hockey Writers and was syndicated with permission.

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