A couple of years ago, it looked like winger Nikolai Kovalenko was going to have a chance to become an impactful NHL player. Instead, he is effectively one-and-done in North America as CSKA Moscow of the KHL announced on its Telegram page that they’ve signed Kovalenko to a two-year contract.
The 25-year-old was a fifth-round pick by Colorado back in 2018, going 171st overall. While it took some time, Kovalenko became a key scoring threat back home, putting up 87 points over his last two seasons with KHL Torpedo, earning himself an entry-level contract along the way.
Once Kovalenko’s KHL season ended in 2024, he was brought up by the Avs and even got into a pair of playoff contests that spring for his first taste of NHL action. The hope was that he’d be well-positioned to upgrade Colorado’s bottom-six group heading into last season with potentially showing enough to move into the top six whenever injuries crept up.
Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go as planned on that front. Kovalenko was limited to just four goals and four assists in the first 28 games of the season while logging just 12 minutes a night of playing time. Instead of being an upgrade on some of the question marks the Avalanche deployed at the back of their forward group, he simply became another one of them.
As a result, Colorado opted to trade Kovalenko to San Jose in early December as one of the key pieces of the return for Mackenzie Blackwood who was brought in to shore up their goaltending (and later signed a five-year extension). With the Sharks firmly in rebuilding mode, it seemed like Kovalenko would get a longer leash and potentially develop into the type of player the Avs were hoping he’d become.
But that didn’t happen. Kovalenko found himself primarily in the same role he had with Colorado and even found himself as a healthy scratch at times. He got into 29 games with San Jose, notching just three goals and nine assists while his ice time ticked up only slightly to 12:40 per game. With the Sharks looking to shake things up roster-wise this summer, they elected to non-tender Kovalenko last month, making him an unrestricted free agent.
While Kovalenko was believed to prefer to stay in the NHL, evidently the offers weren’t to his liking so he has decided to return home after just one full season across the pond. Given his age, it’s quite possible that he’ll be able to get himself back on the radar if he immediately goes back to being a top performer at the KHL level so this might not be the last we see of him in North America.
Photo courtesy of Stan Szeto-Imagn Images.