Ilya Kovalchuk

In club-level competition, Kovalchuk wore the number 17 as a tribute to Valeri Kharlamov, a Soviet superstar in the 1970s.

Kovalchuk's father, Valeri, played basketball in Tver; after his career ended, he turned to coaching and was the head of the sport's school at the Spartak Olympic reserve in the city from 1980 until 1998, while Lyubov was the head of the #2 polyclinic of the #7 Tver city hospital.

Ilya Valeryevich Kovalchuk (Илья Валерьевич Ковальчук; born 15 April 1983) is a Russian professional ice hockey winger for Spartak Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

He formerly played for the Atlanta Thrashers, New Jersey Devils, Los Angeles Kings, Montreal Canadiens, and Washington Capitals in the National Hockey League (NHL), as well as Ak Bars Kazan, Khimik Moscow Oblast, SKA Saint Petersburg, and Avangard Omsk in the Russian Superleague (RSL) and KHL.

As a youth, Kovalchuk played in the 1997 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with Spartak Moscow.

He later played for Vysshaya Liga club Spartak Moscow for two seasons before entering the NHL.

Kovalchuk developed in the youth system of Spartak Moscow, joining their senior team in the Vysshaya Liga in 1999.

After two seasons with Spartak, he joined the Atlanta Thrashers of the NHL, who selected him first overall in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft.

Drafted by the Thrashers first overall in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, he became the first Russian to be drafted first overall in the NHL's history.

Entering his NHL rookie season in 2001–02, Kovalchuk scored 29 goals and 51 points despite missing 17 games with a season-ending shoulder injury.

He finished second in voting to teammate Dany Heatley for the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL rookie of the year.

Both were named to the NHL All-Rookie Team.

Kovalchuk met his future wife, Nicole Andrazajtis, in 2002 after being introduced by mutual friends.

Nicole was a well known singer in Russia at the time and was part of the group Mirage.

After improving to 38 goals and 67 points in his second season, Kovalchuk scored 41 goals in 2003–04, making him a co-winner of the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy after tying for the NHL lead in goals with Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames and Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

He also added 46 assists for 87 points, tying him with Joe Sakic of the Colorado Avalanche for second in the NHL that season, behind Martin St. Louis.

In the NHL, Kovalchuk has twice been named to the All-Star team, and in 2004 finished in a three-way tie for the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy as the NHL's leading goal-scorer, sharing it with Jarome Iginla and Rick Nash.

Valeri would later write a book detailing Kovalchuk's development as a hockey player, titled "From Tver to Atlanta" (Russian: «От Твери до Атланты») and published in 2004; he died in 2005 due to heart disease.

Kovalchuk's sister, Arina, is seven years older than him.

At age seven, Kovalchuk was invited to join the Spartak Moscow youth school, which he went to every weekend, taking the train with his father.

Kovalchuk also participated in his first NHL All-Star Game in 2004.

Due to the 2004–05 NHL lockout, Kovalchuk returned to Russia, playing for both Ak Bars Kazan and Khimik Moscow Oblast of the Russian Superleague (RSL).

After the lockout, Kovalchuk and the Thrashers could not initially agree to a new contract, so he stayed in Russia, rejoining Khimik Moscow Oblast.

He played 11 games for the team, recording 8 goals and 13 points before returning to the Thrashers and NHL after signing a five-year, $32 million contract.

Together they have four children: daughters Karolina and Eva, born in 2005 and 2015; and sons Philipp and Artem, born in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

During the 2005–06 season, he scored 52 goals, tying him with rookie Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals for third in the NHL in scoring, behind Jonathan Cheechoo of the San Jose Sharks (56) and Jaromír Jágr of the New York Rangers (54).

He also tied his career-high of 46 assists for a career-high 98 points, leading the Thrashers in team scoring for the second consecutive season, while finishing eighth overall in NHL scoring.

He also became the first Thrashers player to score 50 goals in a season.

In the 2006–07 season, Kovalchuk's point production dropped for the first time in his career.

He finished with 42 goals and 34 assists for 76 points.

Internationally, Kovalchuk has played for the Russian national junior team in the World U18 Championship and World Junior Championship, and for the Russian national senior team in the World Championship, World Cup and Winter Olympics, winning the 2008 and 2009 World Championships.

They married in 2008 at Church of Dormition in Russia.

After eight seasons with the Thrashers, he was traded to the New Jersey Devils in 2010, with which he signed a 15-year, $100 million contract, after a 17-year, $102 million deal was rejected by the NHL.

In 2013, he left the NHL to return to Russia, joining SKA Saint Petersburg, where he played for five seasons before returning to the NHL in 2018.

Kovalchuk is tied for fourth all time in the NHL for regular-season overtime goals scored (15) and 18th in goals-per-game average (.511), and is the seventh-highest scoring Russian in NHL history.

Kovalchuk is a member of Alexander Ovechkin's PutinTeam which was founded in 2017 to promote Vladimir Putin's 2018 presidential campaign.

At his fifth Olympics in 2018, Kovalchuk was named the most valuable player while helping Olympic Athletes from Russia win the gold medal.

Kovalchuk was born in Kalinin (now Tver), a city roughly 180 kilometres northwest of Moscow, the second child and first son of Valeri and Lyubov.

Born big, he was named in honour of Ilya Muromets, a legendary figure from Kievan Rus'.

Kovalchuk returned to the KHL for the 2020–21 season, before taking two years off from hockey and ultimately returning to Šarkan Šurany.