TOP 100 OILERS: ANDREI KOVALENKO (76)

8 years ago

Andrei Kovalenko was a very good player at times in the 176 games he spent with the Edmonton Oilers, but he’ll always be remembered, at least by this writer, as the co-star in the caper that saw him and Russian running buddy Boris Mironov go AWOL while bar-hopping in Los Angeles.

It was that incident that spawned the infamous “I was out looking for Kovy” excuse by Mironov, who barely made it back to the team hotel the morning after the big bender in time to catch a team flight back to Edmonton. Bobo never did find Kovalenko, but apparently looked in several bars for him to no avail – Kovalenko missed the flight altogether.

Andrei Kovalenko #51

Right Wing
Born Jun 7 1970 — Gorky, Russia
Height 5.11 — Weight 216 [180 cm/98 kg]

Drafted by Quebec Nordiques

Round 8 #148 overall 1990 NHL Entry Draft

BY THE NUMBERS

Season	Team	Lge	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	+/-
1992-93	Quebec Nordiques	NHL	81	27	41	68	57	13
1993-94	Quebec Nordiques	NHL	58	16	17	33	46	-5
1994-95	Quebec Nordiques	NHL	45	14	10	24	31	-4
1994-95	Tolyatti Lada	Russia	11	9	2	11	14
1995-96	Colorado Avalanche	NHL	26	11	11	22	16	11
1995-96	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	51	17	17	34	33	9
1996-97	Edmonton Oilers	NHL	74	32	27	59	81	-5
1997-98	Edmonton Oilers	NHL	59	6	17	23	28	-14
1998-99	Edmonton Oilers	NHL	43	13	14	27	30	-4
1998-99	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL	13	0	1	1	2	-5
1998-99	Carolina Hurricanes	NHL	18	6	6	12	0	3
1999-00	Carolina Hurricanes	NHL	76	15	24	39	38	-13
2000-01	Boston Bruins	NHL	76	16	21	37	27	-14
	NHL Totals		620	173	206	379	389

NOTABLE

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Kovalenko, a blocky five-foot-11, 215-pound (when he was actually in shape) winger, enjoyed the finest season in his 620-game NHL career with the Oilers in 1996-97 when he scored 32 goals and had 59 points, leaving him third in team scoring behind only Doug Weight and Ryan Smyth.

Kovalenko had a nose for the net, was a bulldog within 10 feet of the crease and was not the least bit afraid to go where the greasy goals are scored. The problem with Kovalenko, at least as coach Ron Low saw it, is he was the dictionary definition of inconsistent. Kovalenko could, and did, look like a world-beater for stretches. Then, he’d go missing – on and off the ice.

The swings in his play was the deal-breaker for Kovalenko in Edmonton. The 109 points and 51 goals Kovalenko had in the 176 games he played with the Oilers – he also had 4-3-7 in 13 playoff games — is pretty good by any standard, but Low and general manager Glen Sather found it increasingly difficult to tolerate the no-shows.

THE STORY

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I can only imagine the numbers Kovalenko might have put up he’d bothered to show up for every game, or at least the majority of them, but he never did manage it. His performances swung between “wow” and “WTF,” leading into one of the final straws – the all-nighter in Tinseltown.

I was with the Oilers on that trip. A still-gassed Mironov made the flight. Kovalenko didn’t. When we got back to Edmonton later that day, I called Kovalenko’s wife to ask if he was home yet and if she knew what happened. “No, I do not, but I will be asking,” she said, obviously sour.

I don’t know if she got a satisfactory answer when her husband caught a later flight home. What I do know is Low and Sather never got the answers they were looking for about Kovalenko’s all-over-the-place performance on the ice, and they moved him along to Philadelphia. He was out of the NHL and back home in Russia after the 2000-01 season with Boston.

This series will look at the top 100 Edmonton Oilers from the NHL era 1979-80 to 2014-15, starting with 100 and working up.

Listen to Robin Brownlee Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the Jason Gregor Show on TSN 1260.

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TOP 100 OILERS: ANDREI KOVALENKO (76)

Andrei Kovalenko #51

BY THE NUMBERS

NOTABLE

THE STORY

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