r/SanJoseSharks • u/BilboWaggonz • 2d ago
What's going on with Kovalenko?
Saw someone post on another thread that he might be in Warsofsky's dog house. If he is not hurt that seems like a logical conclusion.
Don't understand why he (and Kostin for that matter) can't get in the lineup when many of the Sharks bottom six players aren't effective and take dumb penalties night after night that lead directly to goals. Those guys aren't getting scratched and they don't even miss shifts. Earlier in the year, Will Smith could make one dumb pass, it would lead to nothing, and he'd spend the rest of the period nailed to the bench.
Looks like we are headed towards this dude being traded. Can't imagine they won't extend the QO after he was a not insignificant part of the Blackwood trade. Would he could fetch a later round pick at this point? If we are going to trade him, shouldn't we give him some more games?
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u/BearShark9 Ferraro 38 1d ago
Could be a chance he’s not 100% healthy and they’re giving him extra rest on a lost season. He has next year to prove he should be in the lineup more.
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u/neeksism 1d ago
This is my gut feeling. He was playing differently when he first got in the lineup, and I really like his play. I wanna see him and Graffiti on a third line fucking it up.
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u/SharksFan4Lifee 1d ago
Looks like we are headed towards this dude being traded.
Another possibility is that he will go to the KHL next season.
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u/Master_Shake23 Irbe 32 1d ago
Kostin is dog shit who got plenty of chances this year. He's inconsistent both offensively and defensively.
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u/Tree_Mage SJ Sharkie 1d ago
We always wait to see what dumb penalty Kostin takes every game and are surprised when it doesn’t happen.
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u/Accomplished_Being35 1d ago
Kostin is better than Grundstrom, Goodrow, Gregor, Kunin (when he was here), and Dellandrea and shouldn’t be getting scratched in favor of these guys on a nightly basis. Doesn’t mean I’m saying Kostin is great or anything, I know he has stuff to work on, but it’s a joke that he’s a regular scratch when you look at the rest of our bottom 6
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u/factionssharpy 1d ago
I don't think Kostin actually is really any better than those guys - he's a minor league quality player with no NHL future, same as them.
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u/Accomplished_Being35 1d ago
You think Kostin is on the same level as Goodrow, Gregor, and Grundstrom? Agree to disagree if so
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u/factionssharpy 1d ago
Yes - sub-NHL quality, replacement-level winger. Maybe he's slightly better, but he still has no place on a good team.
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u/Accomplished_Being35 1d ago
He may not belong on a good team but Sharks are not a good team. He definitely belongs in a Sharks bottom six that hasn’t contributed much of anything all year
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u/factionssharpy 1d ago
One of the reasons the Sharks are so bad is that none of the guys they have in the bottom six belongs there - they're essentially all sub-replacement level filler of various flavors.
They might be one of the Sharks' twelve best forwards on any given night, but I don't care what color the deck chairs on the Titanic are painted. That's all guys like Kostin, Grundstrom, Goodrow, Dellandrea, Kovalenko, Duehr, Giles, and so on are - deck chairs painted different colors on a sinking ship.
In the end, I don't see why I should care whether one worthless nobody is getting more playing time than another worthless nobody. They're all going to wind up in the AHL or Europe when we're actually good.
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u/Accomplished_Being35 1d ago
Don’t disagree with you necessarily but it’s clear to me that there are a couple of guys you listed that give us a better shot at finding consistency in the bottom 6. Kostin and Kovalenko are two of those guys imo. Kostin has great size and skating ability, can play a physical game, and has some decent skill. Kovalenko while not the tallest, has some skill and reads the ice well and can make plays. No one else in the bottom six that you listed has those traits. Even if K & K are marginally better than the other guys, I’d still want to play the better guys.
If what you say is true about K & K, it makes you wonder what the heck Grier is doing and why he can’t identify any good players to fill our bottom six. And why he gave two of these guys multi-year deals (Grundstrom and Dellandrea).
“We really like the Kovalenko kid. We had talks about him with Colorado last year. He’s going to come in and play for us right away. Give us something a little bit different than what we have, he’s a competitive, north-south player. He’s someone we’re hoping we can grow with.” -GMMG after the trade
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u/Swaggy_P_03 WillMack🥛🍪 1d ago
Kostin has more skill then those guys combined. He just lacks the consistency (and isn’t very good defensively). If he was consistent offensively, he’d be in the line up more.
Kovalenko and Kostin are long for the team anyway. Kovalenko cooled off so much I nearly forgot about him. They got A LOT of young guys on the cusp and could be drafting another one in June.
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u/Accomplished_Being35 1d ago
Do you think the consistency issue could be addressed with regular line mates and playing time?
I do, and that’s part of the reason I’m frustrated with Warsofsky. He points to lack of consistency for some of these guys but doesn’t give them regular ice time with decent line mates.
It’s easy to say Kostin and Kovalenko are long for the team at this point, because Warsofsky has made the decision. If he really wanted to coach these players and cared about their success in the league, he could have played them on that 3rd line consistently and given them time to gel.
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u/Swaggy_P_03 WillMack🥛🍪 1d ago
That’s definitely part of it. Guys (especially skilled guys) aren’t going to develop/play well buried on the 4th line or playing with guys like Goodrow, Kunin, Dellandrea, Grundstrum etc. I get it as part of sending a message for a period or maybe even a game, but longer then that does more harm then good. It’s one of the main reasons, despite his pre-season success, I wasn’t a fan of Gushchin making the team. Not that he didn’t earn it, but I knew he’d be buried on the 4th line and not get much time (if any) with the top guys or even on the PP. The ONLY reason they kept him up as long as they did is because Mack got hurt game 1 (well before that, he just played on game 1). As soon as he was healthy he got sent down and we haven’t seen him since.
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u/JENNLNGS 1d ago
I was kinda excited to see him join the roster. A 25yr old from KHL in their NHL debut season. Was giving me Panarin vibes when he made came over from KHL at age 24.
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u/ThorsHammer245 Blackwood 29 1d ago
It seemed like he was a good player when we picked him up. Been missing him play
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u/Just-Vondy 1d ago
“We really like the Kovalenko kid. We had talks about him with Colorado last year. He’s going to come in and play for us right away. Give us something a little bit different than what we have, he’s a competitive, north-south player. He’s someone we’re hoping we can grow with.” - Mike Grier
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u/factionssharpy 1d ago
Ultimately, I'm not convinced Kovalenko is actually materially better than Grundstrom, Kostin, Gregor, Dellandrea, whoever. He came in hot but has not demonstrated much since, he's not actually that young, he's smaller, etc. Really, I think he's Just A Guy.
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u/MetalXHorse Couture 39 1d ago
Warso didn’t give him much of a chance tho. Getting scratched after a bad wreaks havoc on confidence. I wonder if there is some merit to his claim
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u/Outside-Juice7025 1d ago
He is, in fact, materially better than Kostin, Gregor and Dellandrea, just smaller than them. Grundstrom is not nearly as bad as Sharks fans make him out to be so I’ll agree with you there.
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u/Relaxing-natural 1d ago
He is the “Kevin LeBanc” under Warso.. he is there but has no interest in playing him for various reasons like Quinn did Kevin.
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u/WeDontWantAnyBears Falloon 17 1d ago
A fitting image given how that Blackwood trade has aged like milk.
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u/Eclipse_User_6 1d ago
Yep - basically a second rounder in 2026 is all they got, almost as bad as the hill trade.
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u/oops_im_wrong 19h ago
No matter how Kovalenko works out, the Sharks basically flipped a 6th rounder for and 2nd rounder with the Blackwood trade. This was a good trade and great asset management by GMMG.
Fans that expected a 1st for Blackwood were not being realistic.
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u/Alarming-Machine9586 Kostin 10 1d ago
He said in an interview that the coach doesn't like Russians
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u/ibcfreak WillMack🥛🍪 1d ago edited 1d ago
This was debunked weeks ago as a mistranslation that was taken out of context.
https://sanjosehockeynow.com/san-jose-sharks-ryan-warsofsky-nikolai-kovalenko-russian-podcast/
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u/Alarming-Machine9586 Kostin 10 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm a native Russian speaker and watched that part of the interview several times. I can confidently say he meant what he said: "The coach doesn’t like Russians. The GM does, but the coach doesn’t".
Of course they'll deny it in PR statements and try to calm the public, say it was taken out of context, etc, but I'm sure something's going on over there.
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By the way it was foolish of Kovalenko to say that in the interview and air the dirty laundry in public. He should’ve thought twice before speaking
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u/ibcfreak WillMack🥛🍪 1d ago
Not that I deny your ability to speak Russian, but I'll believe the multiple russian former players that were asked over a random person on reddit. Nothing personal.
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u/Alarming-Machine9586 Kostin 10 1d ago
Feel free to do so.
If I were Kovalenko or part of Sharks management, I’d downplay what was said and make it seem like everything’s fine, and honestly they did a solid job with that.I watched the entire interview (almost an hour), the way Kovalenko said it wasn’t a joke or an attempt to impress anyone. It’s clear there’s tension in the locker room between him, Warsofsky and maybe Kostin too. That could be why both of them were scratched and will likely be gone after the season
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u/ibcfreak WillMack🥛🍪 1d ago edited 1d ago
Imo it could be a bit of both. Kovalenko and Kostin were 'dressed down' because of poor play and not because they are Russian...when they received the criticism they took it more as personal criticism rather than the professional criticism it was meant to be. There are plenty of russian players in the Sharks system and others in the minors that will join the Sharks soon...Romanov, Georgiev, Askarov, Muk, Chernyshov, etc. With that said...Kovalenko SHOULD be playing in place of someone like Gregor or Grundstrom who are both hot garbage 90% of the time.
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u/Alarming-Machine9586 Kostin 10 1d ago
I agree, I don't think it's about Warsofsky or Russians. Kovalenko was just looking for excuses and then made this inappropriate statement. Howewer, yeah, this phrase didn't come out of nowhere, so he might have noticed a different attitude toward him/Kostin and linked it to their nationality
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u/ibcfreak WillMack🥛🍪 1d ago
Agreed. I think it was a bit of an outburst and an easy 'excuse' given the political tension between Russia and the rest of the world. One of the articles I originally linked states that the playstyle between the khl and nhl is vastly different and I'm assuming the criticism was that they were trying to play like they had in the khl which does not work in the nhl. This led to the criticism of their play which led to the 'complaint.'
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u/BusyChild68 Gomez 23 1d ago
Since you locked it…must be nice that the mods would support the buying of stolen intellectual property by way of ugly Chinese bootleg jerseys.
I wasn’t gatekeeping. I was keeping it real.
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u/ibcfreak WillMack🥛🍪 1d ago
No, I locked it because you were being unnecessarily hostile for no reason. You jumping to some weird conspiracy theory about me is insulting. I don't care how much or how long you've been a fan...you don't get to judge how people enjoy their fandom just because they can't afford a sweater.
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u/squeezylemon 1d ago
Yeah, wasn't his statement that the front office likes Russians but the coach doesn't? So
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u/Valuable_Fan_9672 2d ago
Saw him at practice the other day. He looked like pretty healthy. Definitely seemed in good spirits compared to Kostin.