Per AOL:

Alex Kovalev’s career in the NHL appears to finished.

The 38-year-old sniper signed a two-year deal with Atlant Mystichi of the KHL on Friday. Kovalev, one of the greatest Russian-born players in NHL history and a veteran of the country’s other professional leagues, was an unrestricted free agent.

“We have long fought for Kovalev and very glad that we could still come to terms with such a talented striker,” Atlant general manager Andrew Ropes said, according to the Toronto Sun.

Kovalev, long viewed as one of the game’s most gifted players, has 428 goals and 596 assists in 1302 NHL games. His best season came with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2000-01, when he totaled 44 goals and 51 assists.

A first-round pick of the Rangers in 1991, Kovalev spent the first 6 1/2 seasons of his career in New York before a trade sent him to Pittsburgh. The Penguins sent him back to the Rangers in 2003. He signed with the Montreal Canadians in 2005, a tenure highlighted by a 35-goal season in 2007-08. In 2009, he signed a two-year deal with the Ottawa Senators.

Earlier in the offseason, Kovalev’s agent, Scott Greenspun, told Sporting News’ Craig Custance that Kovalev intended to play next season, despite a disappointing 2010-11 that featured a failed reunion with the Penguins.

“We’ve had some discussions with teams,” Greenspun said. “He’s going to take his time and make sure it’s a good situation.”

Kovalev had two goals in 20 games for the Penguins after coming over at the trade deadline in a deal that sent a conditional seventh-round pick to the Senators.

It would have become a sixth rounder had the Penguins beat the Lightning in the first round. Pittsburgh GM Ray Shero said after the season that he had no intention to re-sign Kovalev.

Per NHL.com:

Ray Shero continued to remodel the forward corps of the Pittsburgh Penguins by adding Alex Kovalev from the Ottawa Senators for a 2011 conditional draft pick. Pittsburgh will transfer their own 7th round pick in 2011 to Ottawa, however, in the event Pittsburgh advances to the second round of the playoffs and Kovalev plays in at least 50% of the games in the first round, Pittsburgh will transfer their own 6th round pick in 2011 instead of their 7th round pick.

Injuries have decimated the Penguins up front, but earlier this week Shero added power forward James Neal in a deal that sent defenseman Alex Goligoski to Dallas and has now acquired the talented but mercurial Kovalev from the Ottawa Senators.

Kovalev has 14 goals and 27 points in 54 games this season. Six of those goals have come in the past 10 games, and Shero is banking on a move to a contender helping the production of one of the most skilled players in the League.

The right wing, who turns 38 years old today, spent parts of five seasons with the Penguins, and had his most productive season (44 goals, 95 points in 2000-01) with the organization. He had to waive a no-trade clause for the deal to happen, according to reports.

Ottawa moved Kovalev at about the same time it picked up forward Marek Svatos, who was waived Wednesday by Nashville.

The Penguins will be without Evgeni Malkin for the rest of the season because of a knee injury, but could have captain Sidney Crosby back from a concussion. Arron Asham, Nick Johnson and Eric Tangradi are also missing because of concussions.

Other guys currently out include third-leading scorer Chris Kunitz (lower body), and centers Mark Letestu and Dustin Jeffrey (both with knee injuries) — though Kunitz could be close to returning.

Just as the Penguins might be getting closer to having some of the injured forwards back, the defense corps has taken a big hit. Already missing Paul Martin because of an upper-body injury, Brooks Orpik reportedly will miss significant time after injuring his hand during a 3-2 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday.

Orpik used his hand to block a shot by Sharks forward Patrick Marleau at Consol Energy Center. Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said he expects Orpik to be back before the end of the regular season, according to reports coming out of Pittsburgh on Thursday.

Orpik is a stay-at-home defenseman with 1 goal and 11 assists in 56 games. He hasn’t played less than 70 games in a season since 2006-07.

Per TSN:

It was an unusual statement to make, considering the team that Alex Kovalev just came from and the team for whom he will soon suit up.

The former Montreal Canadiens forward – who signed a two-year, $10 million deal with the Ottawa Senators as a free agent this summer – told reporters on Thursday that he likes the idea of finishing his career in Montreal.

“I was disappointed, I thought for sure I’d be staying here,” said Kovalev at his charity golf tournament in Montreal. “I couldn’t really understand what had just happened. In the end, I took it from a business point of view. You had a chance to stay here, and you didn’t, so you just go and do the job somewhere else. But maybe somewhere in the future I’ll be back again, and get the same support.”

“I’ve been back to Montreal four or five times in the last three weeks,” Kovalev continued. ”Every time you see a fan on the street, (they say) they’re really disappointed. That’s why I say, maybe after two years I’ll be back again. It definitely would be nice to retire here. But it’s not for me to talk about Montreal – I’m part of another organization. I’m going to go there and do the best I can and we’ll see what happens.”

This past off-season turned out much differently than Kovalev had hoped. He stated that his first choice was to remain in Montreal, but he was unable to come to terms with the Canadiens and the team instead decided to sign free agent forward Brian Gionta with about the same amount of money.

“We hadn’t agreed on the amount (with Kovalev), but another player was willing to come and join our team,” general manager Bob Gainey told radio station CJAD in early July. “So the dollars that we had allotted there for a particular position were grabbed up by another player.”

The Canadiens are coming off their biggest summer makeover in team history, adding Scott Gomez from the New York Rangers along with Gionta and free agents Mike Cammalleri, Jaroslav Spacek, Paul Mara, Travis Moen and Hal Gill.

Despite a rally by about 100 fans outside the Bell Centre on July 5 – and an online petition signed by more than 8,000 fans to make him captain – the 16-year NHL veteran signed with the Senators. Kovalev was added as insurance up front, as Ottawa continues to shop disgruntled forward Dany Heatley.

“When you spend such a long time with one organization – it happened before when I had to leave the Rangers and Pittsburgh – it’s not easy,” said Kovalev. “But this was a different situation where it was a completely different feeling playing for the city and with the fans reactions, the support and everything, it’s not that easy to leave the city after that.”

Kovalev, like many of his Canadiens teammates, struggled under the weight of expectations during the Canadiens 100th anniversary campaign this past year. The low point for him came in March following the All-Star break when Gainey told him to take some time away from the team in order to “clear his head”.  Many speculated at the time that Kovalev had played his last game for Montreal.  He returned to the team after missing two games and finished the season with 26 goals and 39 assists.

There also appeared to be issues when it came to communications between Kovalev and team management. It was reported by the Canadian Press after the Ottawa signing that Gainey had previously offered Kovalev an identical deal to remain in Montreal.

Gainey said that Kovalev hesitated in getting back to him, so he went ahead with the Gionta deal instead.

“(My agent and I) were just waiting for the best opportunity,” explained Kovalev. “It was nobody’s fault. From what I understand, Montreal was trying to take a different direction and that’s what they decided to do. The last thing we heard from them was when they called us and said ‘there’s no more room for you,’ and that they were going with other players. It was really surprising for us.”

In terms of the Heatley saga, Kovalev said that he would be very happy to have the two-time 50-goal scorer remain in Ottawa.

“It would be nice if (Heatley) stays on the team,” he said. “It’s definitely not going to be easy in the first couple of months, and maybe the fans aren’t going to be on his side, but eventually if he plays well and the team plays well – if he stays it would be great. I’m sure the players will back him up a little bit because he’s always been important to the club.”

2 years, $5 Million per year. Imagine if Heatleyis forced to stay and play in Ottawa? Alfredsson, Spezza, Kovalev, Heatley. That is one nasty powerplay…

Watch for the dude in the white shirt, black baseball hat steal Kovalev’s stick through the camera hole during the scuffle after Kessel’s empty net goal.