Veteran members of the Devils say they didn't try to recruit Ilya Kovalchuk before he signed a 17-year deal with the team. "He never tried to convince me," Kovalchuk said Tuesday when asked if Martin Brodeur tried recruiting him back to New Jersey. "We were always calling each other back and forth. I actually asked him a couple questions and he always said whatever decision you make, make sure it's good and right for your family." "I texted him, I talked to him," Brodeur said. "It was nothing about, 'Oh, come on, come on, come on.' We're not at the point of begging. We're doing well ourselves. I think for me, I wanted to make sure he was OK during that process because I never went through that process in my career, but I can understand how hard it is. Especially when you have young kids and you have a lot of people, agents. You have to deal with a different country trying to lure him out there. It's a tough situation. "I called him more as a friend than as a teammate."