Former first-overall pick Ilya Kovalchuk has officially come out of retirement and begun playing again in Russia.
Kovalchuk Comes Out Of Retirement
Back in 2021, Ilya Kovalchuk decided to hang up the skates calling his career. However, he could not get rid of the itch to play and he decided to start playing again with Spartak Moscow of the KHL.
Kovalchuk played in his first game last night where he scored an empty net goal to get his first goal as a 40-year-old.
The Russian has scored 443 career NHL goals and 876 career points in only 946 NHL games. He certainly would have scored 500+ goals and 1000+ points if he decided to stay in North America for his entire prime but he decided to return to Russia following the lockout.
