Alexei Emelin

[Guest Tony Montana]

Also look at it this way, he speeks no english and it will be hard for him to adapt and have fun in hamilton unless sergei Koztisne will be there and maybe Graboski, in montreal we have Markov who can guide him, kovalev, andrei koztisen. He will feel at home in montreal, look at andrei it took him so long to adapt becuz he had no1. If Yemelin has some1 to talk to would make is life alot funner and easier.

[Guest hogtownhabsfan]

Volchenkov improved dude...

He wasn't good like that the year before.

My point obviousl wasn't clear.

Volchenkov is a 240 lbs + monster, while Yemelin is about a buck 90 I belive. Thats a difference of 50 lbs!

[Guest devils_fury2]

Yemelin could be our Anton Volchenkov.

another guy Emelin reminds me of is Darius Kasparitus with a little more skill

[Guest tonio24]

In Hockey futures the guys compare Emelin to Kasparatis...

And he left 1 year to the Emelin contract in Russia

[Guest jsol]

Here's some news on Emelin, from Habprospects.com

"Emelin Doesn’t Get Day in Court

(Alexei Emelin)

Alexei Emelin and several of his teammates from HC Lada Togliatti tried to have their contracts voided in court by requesting a hearing due to the breach of their contracts when the players went two months without being paid salaries owed. In an attempt to keep their players just two days before the hearing was set, the organization went and paid their players in full, which thwarted the players attempt to have the contracts voided.

At this time it is unknown what impact this will have on Alexei Emelin’s future with the Canadiens. The team will hold his rights for one year and there is still hope that GM Bob Gainey can find a way to work something out with Lada to try and buyout Emelin’s contract which is said to have one more year left but the amount of the contract is unknown. If the Canadiens can not come to terms with Lada this summer, then Emelin will likely stay in Russia for the upcoming 2007-2008 season, baring some unknown miracle.

The hope would then be that Emelin does not re-sign with Lada, or signs a contract with an NHL out clause, as it has been reported that when he signed his current contract that it did not have an NHL out clause. There is the chance that Emelin could give two weeks notice and leave the team, but with his father as the coach it’s unclear if he would go that route and it’s also unclear if the highly respected Gainey would condone such actions. If Emelin does stay in Russia next year and re-signs with them without an NHL out clause, then things could take a turn for the worse, as it appears as though the Russian Federation will not take part of the Player Transfer Agreement which the newly signed agreement is a four year deal. There was a rumor in Russia with Emelin and CSKA but that was denied by Emelin according to unknown sources.

At this point there have not been any official updates from the Canadiens on the situation or the situation of the other Russian prospects, since Gainey stated that they were in talks with Alexei Emelin and Pavel Valentenko’s agents. One would assume that the club will forego the rights to their remaining Russian prospects in Konstantin Korneev, Andrei Kruchinin and Andrei Sidyakin, as they are set to expire this summer which would make them Free Agents. Right now Bob Gainey has bigger fish to fry as he can hopefully come to terms with Andrei Markov before his UFA status kicks in on July 1st."

source: http://www.habprospects.com/modules.php?na...icle&sid=58

[Guest bigsby]

lol his father's the coach. that does make it a bit difficult to bail.

thanks for the update.

[Guest passer_by]

lol his father's the coach. that does make it a bit difficult to bail.

thanks for the update.

It is not true. Coach of Lada is not Alexey Emelin's father, they happened to have the same last name. They are not Father and son.

[Guest overlords]

I'm starting to get very worried about this russian league crap that we're all of a sudden being forced to deal with. We drafted Emelin and now I'm very worried we might not get to play him. If the russian league's theft of our players is going to start being a determining factor in the future growth of our nhl teams, then why don't we just let them in on the draft as well?

[tmash]

I'm starting to get very worried about this russian league crap that we're all of a sudden being forced to deal with. We drafted Emelin and now I'm very worried we might not get to play him. If the russian league's theft of our players is going to start being a determining factor in the future growth of our nhl teams, then why don't we just let them in on the draft as well?

His contracts up next year, we just have to wait.

[Guest HabSteve]

The Canadiens' on-again, off-again pursuit of Russian defenseman Alexei Yemelin is off again. The Canadiens had hoped that Yemelin might become a free agent, what with his Russian team, Lada Togliatti, having financial problems.

Montreal Gazette

[Guest bigsby]

i still don't get why he doesn't just bust out lol. malkin created a whole scene and then stole the show at the world's and became a national treasure. come on alexei get over here! just hand in your notice and bust out of town : )

i just read the european prospects report (accessed through habsinsideout) and that made me nervous. trevor timmins talked about how the russian league was hurting emelin and valentenko's development more than helping it, by forcing them to play a more reserved style so they don't take so many penalties - he argues that that's why emelin's point total went down this season.

[Guest FREDDYBEACH HAB]

He may not have handed in his 2 week notice, because the nice little loop hole is or may have been closed already. I remember during the Worlds the anouncers mentioned that the government was going to change that law.

[Guest tomzilla]

don't think the law has been changed yet

[Guest overlords]

I think the most important thing would be whether he wants to play here or not. Sergei Kostytsin has said numerous times he wants to play here with his brother and bang, he got signed. If emelin is just some other russian who wants to play in the motherland why would he have joined the draft? If the draft is going to be so useless whats the point anymore...?

[tmash]

I think the most important thing would be whether he wants to play here or not. Sergei Kostytsin has said numerous times he wants to play here with his brother and bang, he got signed. If emelin is just some other russian who wants to play in the motherland why would he have joined the draft? If the draft is going to be so useless whats the point anymore...?

Except Sergei was already in North America playing junior, he wasn't playing for the Russian elite league. Russia signs players to long deals at a young age I believe, so they are stuck there. And without a transfer agreement and individual teams prohibited from negotiating with teams directly (as we did with Andrei Kostitsyn's Russian team), we don't have much choice but to wait until his contract is up.

[Guest overlords]

Except Sergei was already in North America playing junior, he wasn't playing for the Russian elite league. Russia signs players to long deals at a young age I believe, so they are stuck there. And without a transfer agreement and individual teams prohibited from negotiating with teams directly (as we did with Andrei Kostitsyn's Russian team), we don't have much choice but to wait until his contract is up.

but the question still remains, has he hinted at wanting to come to north america?

[tmash]

but the question still remains, has he hinted at wanting to come to north america?

sounds like it.

[Guest bigsby]

he has said he wants to play in north america - i just don't have a source as to where. it's possible maybe trevor timmins mentioned that he wasn't happy with his team and was anxious to make the move to north america but i could be wrong. ask markov, he might know lol.

[tmash]

he has said he wants to play in north america - i just don't have a source as to where. it's possible maybe trevor timmins mentioned that he wasn't happy with his team and was anxious to make the move to north america but i could be wrong. ask markov, he might know lol.

I believe he said he wanted to play for the Habs, but would first fulfill his contract in Russia.

[Guest MTL_RULES]

I'm starting to get very worried about this russian league crap that we're all of a sudden being forced to deal with. We drafted Emelin and now I'm very worried we might not get to play him. If the russian league's theft of our players is going to start being a determining factor in the future growth of our nhl teams, then why don't we just let them in on the draft as well?

Do you mean let Russia in on the draft, or are you saying that we shouldn't let Russian players in the draft? Because neither one makes sense. When teams have recently drafted Russian players they were taking a gamble that the player might not be able to make it to North America right away because of the lack of a transfer agreement. And when you draft any player, that means you have the right to that player in the NHL, not in hockey. To say that the russian league is stealing our players is a very close-minded and uneducated way of looking at it.

I think the most important thing would be whether he wants to play here or not. Sergei Kostytsin has said numerous times he wants to play here with his brother and bang, he got signed. If emelin is just some other russian who wants to play in the motherland why would he have joined the draft? If the draft is going to be so useless whats the point anymore...?

The draft has always been to acquire the NHL rights to a player. If people think that that player won't come over to North America, he'll probably be drafted much later than he normally would have been. Why do you think it is alright for a player to break a contract and just run over to the NHL, just because they want to? It's a legally binding document, that you don't just sign for no reason, and are able to drop at any whim you might have. Look at it this way, if we still had Perezhogin under contract for next season(which we don't, he's a RFA) he would have had to stay here because he's under contract. Now if he wants to come back to the NHL before the time he becomes an UFA, we still have his rights.

I know you're frustrated that we don't have both of these guys either in junior or on the bulldogs right now, but that's the way it is. And especially in Valentenko's case, Montreal knew what the situation with Russia was, and they chose to take a gamble. His contract expires at the end of this year, and Emelin's has 1 year left, we still retain their NHL rights until 2008, so as long as we sign them before then, we're golden.

[Guest jsol]

June 4, 2007 Interview with Russian Hockey Digest Publisher Ruslan Salikhov on Emelin, Sherepanov etc ...

by Ron Weiss in his blog @ http://puckmania.blogspot.com/2007/06/inte...key-digest.html

We would love to thank Ruslan for his help, and hopefully we will be able to get more contributions from him, enjoy folks !

1 - Alot is made on the lack of a transfer agreement, this will be a second year since the expiry of the agreement with the IIHF, what do you think are the sticking points which neither party can agree on ?

What the Russian clubs are saying is that the players from Russia should be acquired only as free agents otherwise it is impossible to build teams around their star players. Now if NHL club wants a certain player who is signed with a Russian club, then these clubs should negotiate between them and not according to some organisation, which really should not even be handling hockey transfers.

NHL of course will not accept this for a reason that it will destroy their principle of farm system, which includes not only their North American affiliates but also the countries who are part of IIHF agreement.

2 - Recently players like Alexei Morozov and Alexander Perezhogin have decided to remain in Russia for tangible sums of money instead of returning to the NHL, is this the start of a wave of players who will decide to stay in Russia, do you think it will affect the way GM's in the NHL view Russian prospects ?

I do not see it as a wave, Perezhogin felt that he is underappreciated and therefore will be underpaid so he decided to make a change. Morozov is a different case - he is just a superb player for big European ice and is treated like a superstar in Russia. He just decided that he does not want to change what is not broken. To summarize it all NHL GM's will draft less and less Russians simply because nobody wants extra headache. On the other hand that is exacty what Russian clubs want to achieve - the least amount of Russian born players to be drafted by NHL clubs.

3 - the Montreal Canadiens have prospects Pavel Valetenko and Alexei Emelin as well as Konstantin Korneev playing at the Elite level in Russia, what do these players bring to their teams ?

I can only comment on Emelin - he is going to be one of the best Russian defensemen for the next decade. He is still learning the game but his great personality and love for physical play will reward him and his clubs. He does sometimes takes stupid penalties but he will learn in that department too.

4 - Can any of these players make the kind of jump and potentially get to a level where a player like Andrei Markov is?

Well, Emelin should become a regular on Russian national team and that is already high level. Of course Emelin and Markov are different players and have different strengths, Emelin is more physical while Markov is terrific on powerplays. For me there is no doubth that Emelin can become an elite player of Markov's caliber one day.

5 - Are there any underrated players in the Russian Elite League this year with a potentiel equivalent to what we've seen from Malkin and Ovechkin?

I do not see any for now. Ovechkin and Malkin are once in a decade type of players and Russia was really lucky with these two.

6 - What can you tell us about this year's top rated player : Cherepanov

I am still holding my judgement on Cherepanov - so far he is overrated. His Russian league numbers are great but in my observation he usually does not play well in important games, that could suggest that he is not of the same breed as Malkin and Ovechkin.

7. do you think the comparisons to Pavel Bure are justified ?

Not to me yet. Of course he is very young and has a lot of time to improve but I do not think he can be compared to Bure. I hope I am wrong.

Posted by Roen Weiss at 12:58 PM 0 comments

[Guest overlords]

great read man, thanks alot,

I'm really excited about this guy, whats the SOONEST we could get him on our squad?

[Guest jennifer_rocket]

great read man, thanks alot,

I'm really excited about this guy, whats the SOONEST we could get him on our squad?

It seems like we're going to be stuck waiting for another season (which isn't SO bad). It would be nice to sure up our team for next season, and then the season afterwards we can bring in Emelin and have an extra piece on D. A long term obtainable to look forward to.

[Guest Habsfan_11]

Ok, so Emelin has 1 more year on his contract. How long do we have his rights?

[Guest bigsby]

June 4, 2007 Interview with Russian Hockey Digest Publisher Ruslan Salikhov on Emelin, Sherepanov etc ...

by Ron Weiss in his blog @ http://puckmania.blogspot.com/2007/06/inte...key-digest.html

We would love to thank Ruslan for his help, and hopefully we will be able to get more contributions from him, enjoy folks !

1 - Alot is made on the lack of a transfer agreement, this will be a second year since the expiry of the agreement with the IIHF, what do you think are the sticking points which neither party can agree on ?

What the Russian clubs are saying is that the players from Russia should be acquired only as free agents otherwise it is impossible to build teams around their star players. Now if NHL club wants a certain player who is signed with a Russian club, then these clubs should negotiate between them and not according to some organisation, which really should not even be handling hockey transfers.

NHL of course will not accept this for a reason that it will destroy their principle of farm system, which includes not only their North American affiliates but also the countries who are part of IIHF agreement.

2 - Recently players like Alexei Morozov and Alexander Perezhogin have decided to remain in Russia for tangible sums of money instead of returning to the NHL, is this the start of a wave of players who will decide to stay in Russia, do you think it will affect the way GM's in the NHL view Russian prospects ?

I do not see it as a wave, Perezhogin felt that he is underappreciated and therefore will be underpaid so he decided to make a change. Morozov is a different case - he is just a superb player for big European ice and is treated like a superstar in Russia. He just decided that he does not want to change what is not broken. To summarize it all NHL GM's will draft less and less Russians simply because nobody wants extra headache. On the other hand that is exacty what Russian clubs want to achieve - the least amount of Russian born players to be drafted by NHL clubs.

3 - the Montreal Canadiens have prospects Pavel Valetenko and Alexei Emelin as well as Konstantin Korneev playing at the Elite level in Russia, what do these players bring to their teams ?

I can only comment on Emelin - he is going to be one of the best Russian defensemen for the next decade. He is still learning the game but his great personality and love for physical play will reward him and his clubs. He does sometimes takes stupid penalties but he will learn in that department too.

4 - Can any of these players make the kind of jump and potentially get to a level where a player like Andrei Markov is?

Well, Emelin should become a regular on Russian national team and that is already high level. Of course Emelin and Markov are different players and have different strengths, Emelin is more physical while Markov is terrific on powerplays. For me there is no doubth that Emelin can become an elite player of Markov's caliber one day.

5 - Are there any underrated players in the Russian Elite League this year with a potentiel equivalent to what we've seen from Malkin and Ovechkin?

I do not see any for now. Ovechkin and Malkin are once in a decade type of players and Russia was really lucky with these two.

6 - What can you tell us about this year's top rated player : Cherepanov

I am still holding my judgement on Cherepanov - so far he is overrated. His Russian league numbers are great but in my observation he usually does not play well in important games, that could suggest that he is not of the same breed as Malkin and Ovechkin.

7. do you think the comparisons to Pavel Bure are justified ?

Not to me yet. Of course he is very young and has a lot of time to improve but I do not think he can be compared to Bure. I hope I am wrong.

Posted by Roen Weiss at 12:58 PM 0 comments

thanks for the post. great read! i watched emelin play at both international tournaments this year and thought he was awesome, but the way he's described here make him down-right exciting! his contract can't expire soon enough!

i wonder if one more year in the superleague would make him nhl ready? besides the ice surface adjustment, it sounds like he could be (a summer training in montreal might help?!)...do defensemen have a tougher time adjusting than forwards?