Bruins Notebook: Don’t take the bait on Ilya Kovalchuk, Miller undergoes another procedure

When it comes to addressing some of the vacancies present in the Bruins’ lineup, Don Sweeney and the B’s front office have plenty of options. 

First up, Boston will look to plug in some of those holes with in-house options — whether that be on the roster right now, currently stuck on IR or down in Providence. 

Even though Taylor Hall was dealt to Arizona on Monday afternoon, there are plenty more intriguing options on the trade market for the B’s to pursue through, both on the wing and at center. 

But, given the B’s current cap constraints, any deal involving outside help would give Boston some major headaches, along with the pain of having to deal away valued assets.

But what if a proven goal scorer was available for pennies on the dollar?



Such a scenario might present itself for the Bruins and other clubs in need of a scoring lift, as Ilya Kovalchuk’s miserable tenure in Los Angeles has come to an end. 

The Kings made it official on Monday, announcing that the 36-year-old winger has been placed on waivers ''for the purpose of terminating his contract with the club.” 

Kovalchuk, who signed a three-year, $18.75 million contract with L.A. back in the summer of 2018, tallied 19 goals and 43 points over 81 games with the Kings — a far cry from the numbers he put up in his first stint in the NHL.

After seeing his playing time cut last season under interim head coach Willie Desjardins, Kovalchuk’s second go-around with the Kings managed to be even worse, with the team opting to take the sniper out of the lineup following a game on Nov. 9. He hasn’t played since. 

Once his contract is officially terminated, Kovalchuk will be tabbed as an unrestricted free agent, while the Kings will still need to carry that $6.25 million cap hit next year. While Kovalchuk could cash in with a lucrative deal back in his native Russia, it looks as though he’s going to weigh his options in the NHL (likely for a Cup contender) before considering a move back to the KHL.

So, could the Bruins come knocking, especially if Kovalchuk opted to sign for cheap money?

It's certainly plausible. After all, the Bruins were one of the franchises that came up short in the bidding for Kovalchuk’s services back in 2018, while a cheap deal could help Boston avoid having to really jump through hoops with its cap space.

And, for a team in a need of a top-six winger, Kovalchuk still has plenty of appeal. He may not be the player that racked up five 40-goal seasons earlier in his career, but Kovalchuk still possesses a heavy, accurate shot.

But when it comes to tangible value, Kovalchuk’s game has clearly slipped, and that’s not counting his sluggish speed and poor play down the other end of the ice.

Even in the O-zone, Kovalchuk’s play has left a lot to be desired, with the winger’s average shot distance this season clocking out at about 34.8 feet — not exactly what you want to see from a guy expected to pepper the net from Grade-A areas.

In total, Kovalchuk’s individual 5v5 shots per 60 minutes rate of 6.1 would rank 14th on the Bruins’ roster, while his scoring chances per 60 min. rate of 5.81 would place him 11th with this current Bruins club. 

Add in the fact that his power-play proficiency has also waned (just five power-play goals in 81 games with the Kings), and Kovalchuk’s track record as a dependable offensive presence might have finally run its course in 2019.

Yes — the name is flashy, the contract could be cheap and the past numbers are tempting. But given the other options available to the Bruins when it comes to improving their roster, it’s best for Boston to let Kovalchuk become some other club’s problem. 

Kevan Miller dealt another setback

Slowly but surely, Boston’s once-extensive list of banged-up skaters is getting shorter and shorter by the day, it seems. While John Moore has already logged five games since returning from offseason shoulder surgery, it also appears as though Karson Kuhlman and Zach Senyshyn are not too far behind. 

But, based on Bruce Cassidy’s comments on Monday at Warrior Ice Arena, it appears as though Kevan Miller is still facing an uphill battle when it comes to getting back on the ice.

Miller, who suffered both a horizontal and vertical fracture in the same kneecap in the span of weeks, has already been tagged with an extensive and grueling road to recovery, to say the least. But it looked at one point that Miller was ahead of Moore in terms of a return, with the veteran defenseman recently taking part in Bruins’ practices by the middle of November.


Unfortunately for the 32-year-old defenseman, it looks as though another setback has his status up in the air — with Cassidy unable to provide a hard date for when the club could expect Miller back in the fold. 

“A good question — I don’t have an update,” Cassidy said. “He had a procedure done that would require a little bit of time. I thought by now, he’d be back in the mix. He’s not. We were away for a week, so it kind of, don’t want to be disrespectful, out of sight, out of mind a little bit. So I don’t have a great answer for you. … He should be back with us.”

The procedure that Miller underwent was clearly not in the original plan for his recovery, with Cassidy noting that it was performed two weeks ago in order to “help with (Miller’s) healing.” 

Cassidy did not want to say that it was the same measure Patrice Bergeron took this summer with a PRP injection, but added that the club hopes that the procedure would yield a similar outcome to the one Bergeron underwent. 

Boston’s blue line is already pretty packed in with either Moore or Connor Clifton sitting out of every other game these days, but Monday’s news is still a brutal development for Miller, who hasn’t played since April 4 in Boston’s penultimate regular-season game of the 2018-19 campaign. 

Surgery not an option for Bergeron

Despite missing seven straight games last month due to a nagging lower-body injury, Patrice Bergeron hasn’t looked all that rusty since returning to his usual spot at the top of Boston’s lineup — scoring two goals and posting three points during the Bruins’ four-game road trip, all while averaging 20:55 of ice time. 

Bergeron is no stranger to nagging lower-body injuries, having undergone offseason surgery to deal with a sports hernia in 2017, while taking a PRP shot to aid in his healing last summer from recurring groin issues. 

Even if Bergeron’s play hasn’t dipped since his return to the lineup on Dec. 9, the question was posed back in November that perhaps it would be best for Bergeron to go under the knife to correct his injury, rather than defer to rest and regular treatment.

While that was the course that Sidney Crosby took last month to correct a hernia injury of his own, Bergeron noted on Monday that going under the knife was not on the table when it came to charting out his road back to game action. 

“Nope,” Bergeron said. “It’s nothing that’s been discussed and that’s why we took the time to make sure that it wasn’t going to become an issue.” 

He added: "That's why we took longer in that two-week period, to make sure I was going to come back and feel good and not having to miss too many practices. That being said, we're gonna have to manage as the year goes on and it's been the issue for a few years, so that's what we're trying to work on right now."