For a while, the NHL fought long and hard with the Russian Super League to acquire and keep some of the game's highest talents.
Starting in the late 1980's we saw talents like Igor Larionov, Sergei Fedorov, and Pavel Bure all leave the RSL in order to make it big in the NHL. The Russians were upset, but they simply couldn't offer the same big-money contracts and lifestyles that these players found in North America.
The issue re-surfaced near the start of the lockout, when Russian hockey received a big boost in young talent with the likes of Kovalchuk, Ovechkin, and Malkin all being drafted by NHL franchises intent on dragging them away from the Russian clubs where they had developed into such stars. The Malkin "defection" case was one that received much media hype and coverage, and was one of the last of its kind I think we'll see in a while.
More recently, RSL clubs have been bought by billionaire owners focussed on turning them into strong, competitive teams with big-name players. We saw this early last year, when Alexei Cherepanov refused to come over to North America after being drafted, in order to stay with the Russians. With the new look came a new name for the RSL, now known as the KHL (Kontinental Hockey League), and now the aggressive owners are making expensive pitches to established NHL stars. We've seen the likes of Malkin and Jagr recieve big-money offers that exceed salaries allowed by the NHL cap.
The recent defection of guys like Jagr and Emery were reasonable, as both had their reasons. Jagr receieved an offer that paid him $5 million more than any NHL team was offering, for 3x the term. Emery simply could not find a team that wanted him, and signed on in Russia.
But with the recent departure of Alexander Radulov comes big worries for the rest of the league. Radulov, 22, is one of the new up and coming young stars of the league, and was due for a HUGE contract extension with the Predators after this upcoming season. Perhaps his signing with Ufa is foreshadowing a potential mass-defection of young talent from the NHL over the next few years? I've prepared a list of guys we might see leave for the KHL over the next few years:
Ilya Kovalchuk - Soon to be UFA who would recieve potentially the biggest salary in hockey history in the form of an offer form a KHL team
Denis Grebeshkov - Oilers D-man was already being contacted by KHL teams before signing a one-year extension with the club.
Nikolai Zherdev - Played in the RSL while having contract troubles with the Jackets early in the 06-07 campaign. Would easily bite on a big-money offer from Russia when his contract is up.
Thanks to the new NHL-KHL agreement, players can no longer leave a team they are under contract with to sign with a team in the other league. But any free agent can. I think we'll see more and more ridiculous offers from Russia, and even more and more defections.
1 comment:
It's actually been going on a lot longer than you think. Before the signing of Radulov, who I'll admit is a bigger name than some, you have the defections of Artem Chubarov, a skilled shut-down 3rd line Center, and Kirill Koltsov, a promising top-4 defender; both prospects of the Vancouver Canucks system, and Alex Perezhogin of the Montreal Canadiens. This is of course completely omitting the Alexei Mikhnov debacle.
It's certainly going to make teams much more careful of drafting Russian talents over options closer to home, unless they have either a) already played junior hockey in Canada (notable example: Slava Trukhno) or b) are committed to playing junior hockey in Canada (notable example: Nikita Filatov).
I do however, see the signing of a big-name developing player as a one-off. I think Radulov is unique in his situation by playing for a team in a market that isn't designed for hockey. Kovalchuk will have the opportunity to be free of his captors in Atlanta and sign somewhere better, while Zherdev was awarded the keys to the Big Apple. I don't see them leaving any time soon. Your comment about Grebeshkov though, has me scared about that possibility.
Good blog.
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