After five years back home in Russia Randy White Jersey , Ilya Kovalchuk is ready to resume his Stanley Cup chase with the Los Angeles Kings.
The high-scoring forward agreed to a three-year, $18.75 million deal with the Kings on Saturday, choosing Los Angeles over several interested teams for his return to the NHL.
The 35-year-old Kovalchuk scored 816 points in 816 career games for the Atlanta Thrashers and the New Jersey Devils before leaving North America in 2013 for the Kontinental Hockey League’s SKA St. Petersburg. He led the KHL in scoring last season, and he was the MVP of the Olympic tournament in Pyeongchang while propelling the ”Olympic Athletes from Russia” to a gold medal.
”He gives us an added element of skill and scoring, along with a desire to win,” Kings general manager Rob Blake said.
Boston and San Jose were among the suitors for Kovalchuk, but the Kings made a top-dollar offer to add him to a lineup that could use another dependable goal-scorer. Kovalchuk is likely to be particularly important on the power play for the Kings, who ranked in the middle of the NHL standings in most team scoring categories.
Kovalchuk was the first Russian to be the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft when Atlanta chose him in 2001. He quickly became one of the NHL’s most consistent scorers with his wicked shot and hockey sense. He spent nearly eight years with the Thrashers and 3 seasons with the Devils Shawn Williams Jersey , who acquired him in a trade in February 2010.
Kovalchuk will forever be the top scorer in the history of the Thrashers, who moved to Winnipeg one season after trading him to New Jersey. He shared the Rocket Richard Trophy as the NHL’s top goal-scorer in 2004 with Rick Nash and Jarome Iginla, yet his 41 goals that season were only the fifth-best total during a career in which he posted a pair of 52-goal seasons for the Thrashers.
Kovalchuk had little playoff success in his NHL career until 2012, when he reached the Stanley Cup Final with the Devils after leading the Eastern Conference playoffs in scoring. New Jersey lost the Final in six games to the Kings, with Kovalchuk scoring only one empty-net goal in the series.
The Kings and Kovalchuk have had mutual interest for many years. Los Angeles pursued him in free agency in 2010 before Kovalchuk got a massive contract to stay with the Devils.
Just three seasons into a 15-year, $100 million contract with New Jersey, Kovalchuk abruptly left the NHL for St. Petersburg amid complaints about North American taxes and the distance from his family. Kovalchuk and his wife have four children.
He won two KHL championships with St. Petersburg, and he scored 141 points in 113 games over the past two seasons against the KHL’s lesser competition. Kovalchuk became a five-time Olympian in February Jeremy Kerley Jersey , when he scored five goals in six games for the Russians in the watered-down Pyeongchang tournament, which included no current NHL players.
—
The good King or the bad King?
That is the question for the Seattle Mariners and those in attendance Thursday night at Safeco Field for the opener of a four-game series with the Boston Red Sox.
Will they get to see the Felix Hernandez who went a season-high eight innings in his last home start against Tampa Bay, giving up just one run on five hits with one walk and seven strikeouts?
Or will it be the King Felix who lasted just three innings on the road Saturday against those same Rays, getting tagged for six runs (five earned) on seven hits to a team that had lost eight straight games?
“He threw the ball very well and got very good results the last time out (at home),” Mariners manager Scott Servais said after Saturday’s 7-3 loss. “But the key in this league is being consistent and going out there every start and giving your team a chance to win. And we were behind the eight ball after the third inning. I just want to see consistency and giving us a chance to win. And he does, too.
“Felix’s stuff wasn’t as good (Sunday). It was evident right from the get-go. The life on the fastball really wasn’t there. It’s not all about velocity. It’s about locating it. And that wasn’t really on either.”
Hardly a ringing endorsement for a six-time All-Star and the American League’s 2010 Cy Young Award winner.
King Felix is 6-5 this season with a career-worst 5.70 ERA. He has given up four or more runs in five of his past seven starts.
“I was making some good pitches and they had some hits that found some holes and there’s nothing I could do about that,” Hernandez said in his own defense Saturday. “I think I had pretty good stuff, they just put a lot of balls in play Todd Gurley Jersey , just a little bit of tough luck. I was a little bit up, but I think I was making good pitches.”
Maybe catcher Mike Zunino put it best, telling The Seattle Times: “There’s been games where his velocity may not have been that high, but if he locates he can get away with stuff.”
Opposing pitchers haven’t gotten away with much against the Red Sox, who lead the American League East.
Outfielder Mookie Betts, who returned Monday from a stint on the 10-day disabled list with a left abdominal strain, leads the league with a .352 batting average and an on-base plus slugging percentage of 1.171. Teammate J.D. Martinez is second to the Los Angeles Angels‘ Mike Trout with 22 homers and is third in the league, behind Betts and Trout Star Lotulelei Jersey , with a 1.033 OPS.
Betts hit his first home run since coming off the disabled list Wednesday in a 5-1 victory that gave the Red Sox a sweep of Baltimore.
“I’ve done everything that I pretty much do, and I passed the test,” said Betts, who didn’t have the benefit of a minor league rehabilitation assignment. “Just trying to ride this wave.”
Hernandez is 8-4 with a 4.01 ERA in 19 career starts against Boston.
The Red Sox will counter with left-hander David Price (7-4, 4.00 ERA), who is 5-0 in his past six starts overall.
Price is 3-1 with a 2.62 ERA in seven career starts against Seattle.
Jalen Brunson Jersey ,
