LeBrun outlines Kovalchuk NHL return hurdles

Pierre LeBrun was on TSN’s Insider Trading on Monday evening.

On if Ilya Kovalchuk may want to return to the NHL:

“Well, we shall see and it’s not going to be easy if that’s the case. First of all, you mention retirement. He did, absolutely, sign his retirement papers – and that’s important. Because when you do sign your voluntary retirement papers, all kinds of barriers set themselves up for your possible return one day in the NHL.

“One is this: If he wanted to come back, either have to take a year off from hockey completely – play no organized hockey before coming back as a UFA the year after.

“Or, sign with said NHL team and hope that the 29 other teams would say yes to him signing with that NHL team. Good luck with that.

“However, we know that nothing’s always simple with the NHL. There is a conflicting provision in the CBA, which is decades old – the voluntary retirement provision - which says this: if he goes back to the last team he ever played with, that perhaps he doesn’t need the other 29 teams to sign off on it. That would be the New Jersey Devils.

“That would be up to the interpretation of the National Hockey League, if it ever comes to the fact that he would want to return.”

Source: TSN/ Transcript Nichols on Hockey

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