A little more than a year ago, the Colorado Avalanche were trusting Nikolai Kovalenko with playoff minutes.
But it’s been quite the year since then.
Kovalenko couldn’t even break through enough with Colorado to finish the 2024-25 season there. They traded him to the San Jose Sharks midway through the campaign, and even on a rebuilding club, the promising winger couldn’t seize a big role.
Now, Kovalenko is heading to Russia.
He has agreed to a two-year deal with CSKA Moscow in the KHL, that team announced.
Kovalenko didn’t come to the NHL until the end of the 2023-24 KHL season, but that’s when the Avs plugged him right into the playoff lineup.
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In 2024-25, he scored four goals with four assists in 28 games for the Avalanche, then three goals with nine assists in 29 games for the Sharks.
Still just 25 years old, Kovalenko seems like he could still have a bright future ahead of him.
But for now, he’s going back to his native Russia on a two-year deal. It seems like it’ll be a little while before we might hear about him in the NHL again.
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