Ilya Kovalchuk's starred as a difference-maker in hockey's top leagues. This 2001 story profiled Kovalchuk in depth just before the Atlanta Thrashers drafted him first overall.
Vol. 54, No. 37, June 1, 2001In this major story from The Hockey News’ June 1, 2001, edition (Volume 54, Issue 37), writer Alan Adams profiled star winger Ilya Kovalchuk just weeks before the Atlanta Thrashers picked him first overall in the NHL draft.
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Kovalchuk thrived as a youngster with Spartak Moscow before the Thrashers selected him, and the hype that goes along with being a first-overall selection was well-earned by Kovalchuk.
“Kovalchuk will go over you, around you, through you and he’ll cross-check you,” Calgary Flames GM Craig Button told Adams. “He has that fiery determination.”
Kovalchuk went on to play 926 regular-season NHL games before he headed home in 2020 to the KHL, where he's played with Omsk and Spartak Moscow. He came close to winning a Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils in 2012, but he ultimately was known as a dynamic force on offense who could turn heads with his speed and smarts.
“I would much rather have a player who plays with his emotion and his desire to succeed,” said then-Thrashers GM Don Waddell. “I think it’s easier to pull those guys back than it is to instill that in someone. It doesn’t happen. I have spent some time with this kid and he’s a good kid.”
‘FIERY’ KOVALCHUK ROCKETS TO NO. 1
Vol. 54, No. 37, June 1, 2001
By Alan Adams
Somehow it seems right that Ilya Kovalchuk has been seen tearing around Moscow in his own car the last couple of months.
Driving in the Russian capital is truly an unfiltered experience. There are poor roads, inadequate signage, low-quality fuel and a cutthroat, lane-changing attitude which makes North American road rage seem like a serene Sunday afternoon drive.
When he’s on the ice, Kovalchuk runs roughshod over his opponents just like he was late heading to the Moscow Spartak arena for a practice. He’s big (6-foot-2, 207 pounds), tough and a stickhandling wizard. You can’t help but notice him because it seems he always has the puck. He has the potential to be an NHL superstar, along the lines of a Pavel Bure, and has been tabbed as being “special,” the type of prospect that only comes along every few years, like Vincent Lecavalier (1998) and Joe Thornton (1997) in recent drafts.
Kovalchuk is heads and shoulders above the rest of the 2001 pack. The NHL’s Central Scouting Service pegs him as the top-rated European and THN’s Draft Preview ranks him No. 1 on the Hot 100 listing of prospects.
“Kovalchuk will go over you, around you, through you and he’ll cross-check you,” said Calgary Flames’ GM Craig Button. “He has that fiery determination.”
But the fact Kovalchuk has his own wheels as an 18-year-old in a country where policemen make $25 (U.S.) a week and Survivor is a game millions play daily makes you wonder whether too much has been handed to him too soon.
This is where the Bure comparison comes in. There’s no doubt there’s a certain amount of emotional and psychological maintenance that comes with the Russian Rocket and people wonder whether Kovalchuk is cut from the same cloth.
“He’s very strong and aggressive and he’s focussed when he plays, but he’s a typical modern hockey player,” said Igor Tuzik, Russia’s GM at the 2001 World Championship in Germany. “He thinks of himself more than the team. That’s what we call a modern player. He was born in Russia and he was developed in Russia, but he plays a more Canadian style, very individualistic. He’s a modern Russian player.”
The feeling in NHL circles is there is absolutely no doubt Kovalchuk is the top pick by a wide margin. There’s also near-unanimous agreement he seems to be a natural-born coach-killer and the player most likely to be hated by his teammates. Kovalchuk could go through three coaches and three GMs before either he figures things out for himself or someone straightens him out. He can be a storm cloud as much as he is a lightning strike on offense.
“We talk about players not having enough temperament and we talk about will he ever have the temperament and now we are talking about a guy who has temperament and we are saying he has too much,” Button said. “We’re never satisfied. I think a lot of maturing will go on in the next few years. I think a big part will be how he’s handled.”
But the bottom line is this: Young players have to learn and if the Atlanta Thrashers think Kovalchuk’s heart is in the right place, all they can do is hope he matures and becomes the franchise player he’s projected to be. Atlanta GM Don Waddell isn’t the least bit concerned about the wunderkind’s temperament.
“I would much rather have a player who plays with his emotion and his desire to succeed,” Waddell said. “I think it’s easier to pull those guys back than it is to instill that in someone. It doesn’t happen. I have spent some time with this kid and he’s a good kid.”
There’s no doubt Kovalchuk has everything a team would want. His explosive skating has been compared to the likes of Bure. He’s a fierce competitor who does not hesitate to get involved physically He led his team, Spartak, in penalty minutes this season with 98.
“One-on-one he can be pretty dazzling,” said Mark Kelley, Pittsburgh’s European scout.
“When he plays for Spartak, by the end of the period, by the end of he game, even his teammates are up off the bench watching. Guys on the other team get up and watch him and he’s only 18.”
But first things first. Waddell has a ‘For Sale’ sign up for the coveted No. 1 pick and he wants a young goalie along with a top prospect in return.
“It will go right down to the moments before the draft,” Waddell said.
Kovalchuk was born in Krasnoyarsk (near Moscow) and when he was five his father enrolled him in hockey school; in hindsight, it was a great decision.
Kovalchuk played his first hockey with HC Tver, the farm team of Moscow Dynamo, but transferred to Moscow Spartak in the Second Division, where he flourished under Spartak’s offensive style.
He scored 70 goals in league, exhibition and tournament play in 1999-2000. NHL scouts took notice of him at the World Under-17 tournament in January of 2000 in Timmins, Ont., where he scored 10 goals and had 14 points in six games. The Hockey Hall of Fame asked for one of his sticks after that performance.
Kovalchuk suffered a slow start to the 2000-01 season and had a lackluster performance at the World Junior Championship (four goals and six points in seven games), but went on a tear in the second half of the season with 25 goals and 43 points in the final 39 games. Overall, he finished third in team scoring with 35 goals and 56 points and was plus-34 in 47 games.
But it was at the World Under-18 Championship in April in Finland where Kovalchuk dominated and left scouts drooling. He scored 11 goals and finished with 15 points in six games.
Russian hockey writer Igor Rabiner, who watched Kovalchuk play in a relegation round-robin between the top teams in the Second Division and the Superleague basement-dwellers, reported the youngster has “the speed and drive of Pavel Bure, the enthusiasm of a young Valeri Kamensky, the stickhandling skills of (legendary Russian) Alexander Maltsev and the strength and courage of Phil Esposito.”
Even former Soviet national team coach Viktor Tikhonov was impressed, saying, “He must work much more, but the raw material is there. Somebody says Kovalchuk doesn’t pass enough, but you also could say that about Pavel Bure…what’s important now is that a (young) lad learns to manage himself when he’s in the limelight.”
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