During a game against the Nashville Predators during the season on January 11, 2006, Predators coach Barry Trotz accused Kovalchuk with "always playing with an illegal stick." Trotz had asked the referees to check Kovalchuk's stick following a Thrashers goal, but claimed that Kovalchuk was able to switch his stick before the referees could check.
Ilya Repin | Ilya Kabakov | Ilya Prigogine | Ilya Kaminsky | Ilya Ehrenburg | Ilya Salkind | Ilya Maksimov | Ilya Ilyin | Ilya Glazunov | Ilya | Ilya Rabinovich | Ilya Musin | Ilya Kovalchuk | Ilya (comics) | Ilya Blyznyuk | ILYA |
The 5th KHL all-star game was played on 13 January 2013 in Chelyabinsk, with Team East, captained by Aleksey Morozov, winning 18–11 over Team West, captained by Ilya Kovalchuk.