Alexei Kovalev would like to return to the NHL in 2012-13. "Hopefully, I'll find an NHL team," he said. "The preference is always going to be a team I've played on (Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators) because you know the environment. And I'd definitely like to come back to Montreal. They're all about the young guys, but I can help in all different ways. And I can still play. I have a lot of energy." He appeared in just 22 games with the KHL's Atlant Moscow Oblast franchise before leaving the team after they made it clear that they no longer wanted him around. Whether or not the Canadiens, or anyone else for that matter, wants Kovalev is another question though after he posted back-to-back sub-par years in Ottawa, with a brief stop in Pittsburgh, before going to play overseas.