There has been a lot of rampant speculation this morning regarding Ilya Kovalchuk and some rumors out of Europe that he is considering leaving the New Jersey Devils to stay with SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL. My advice to all of you: don't worry, he will be back. I can say that confidently for a couple reasons:

1. The KHL and NHL have an agreement to honor existing contracts in their respective leagues. Basically, the KHL and NHL aren't supposed to allow players from the opposite league to stay in their own league if they're under contract in the other league. Kovalchuk is obviously under contract in the NHL.

2. Kovalchuk still has over a decade and $80 million remaining on his contract. I think he'd like that money.

Bill Daly told Devils beat writer Tom Gulitti that he's spoken to the KHL and they said they will honor the agreement in place.

Ilya Kovalchuk played today for SKA and he *could* play Thursday as well, but if he does that would absolutely be his last game, according to David Pagnotta of TheFourthPeriod. Pagnotta was told that "he'll be back 100%."

Any way you slice it, Ilya Kovalchuk will be wearing the red and black January 19th when the Devils play their season opener. This situation has been overblown.

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