SteenIsThaFuture Posted May 12, 2009 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 Apparently, the KHL President Medvedev, announced that the KHL will hold a 17 year old player draft next month. Upon drafting these players, such as Kirill Kabanov proclaimed the "Next Ovechkin" by some or Alexander Burmistov both who will go in the top 10 most likely in the 2010 draft and Kabanov possibly 1st if not 2nd overall, the KHL teams will sign them to 5 year deals and at the end of the deals they will become restricted free agents whose KHL teams can match any offer by any NHL or Euro team and retain their rights for another contract. The reasons behind this is to force the NHL's hand to institute a ploicy to get individual sums of money from NHL teams to get these players out of their KHL contracts. The current collective-bargaining agreement in the NHL does not allow for that. ESPN's LeBrun suggests the NHL may counter this with such as luring young Russian teenagers to play junior hockey in Canada or, perhaps, holding a separate 16-year-old draft for Russians, etc. Either way the CBA will change, or the way Russian players and especially Russian stars are handled in North America is about to change in some fashion. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?...cupplayoffsblog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leafs_rock_go_mccabe Posted May 12, 2009 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 Whoa! This sounds like it's about to get a little more exciting. Are we witnessing the slow and steady siphoning of Russian-born players from the NHL for good? That would be a shame, as Russians make up hugely exciting portion of the present NHL. Just imagine not having players like Ovechkin, Markov, Datsyuk, Malkin, and co. in ten years from now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darren19 Posted May 12, 2009 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 ESPN's LeBrun suggests the NHL may counter this with such as luring young Russian teenagers to play junior hockey in Canada or, perhaps, holding a separate 16-year-old draft for Russians, etc. Either way the CBA will change, or the way Russian players and especially Russian stars are handled in North America is about to change in some fashion. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?...cupplayoffsblog lol...and then what? Russians hold a 15 year old draft... The NHL needs to wake up. They've had it good for too long to the detriment of countries who produce hockey players...including Canada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmash Posted May 12, 2009 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 How much of a threat this is really depends on how much power the players have. In a free country, just because a team decides to draft you, it doesn't mean you have to sign with them: all it means is you can't go to other teams in that league. Is Russia a free country though? Likewise, unless there is a deal in place between the leagues, restricted free agency has no effect outside of the league you are given that status in. Restricted free agency is purely an internal mechanism for leagues, an unsigned player is an unsigned player between leagues (unless there are transfer deals). So it's interesting when it says Russian teams will have the right to match. Since they will have no legal right to match, does this mean that they're going to send the mob after these players and 'convince' them to abandon their new contract and sign an equivalent deal in Russia? Having a right to match would require an agreement between the leagues, you can't just arbitrarily add one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gracie12 Posted May 12, 2009 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 How much of a threat this is really depends on how much power the players have. In a free country, just because a team decides to draft you, it doesn't mean you have to sign with them: all it means is you can't go to other teams in that league. Is Russia a free country though? Likewise, unless there is a deal in place between the leagues, restricted free agency has no effect outside of the league you are given that status in. Restricted free agency is purely an internal mechanism for leagues, an unsigned player is an unsigned player between leagues (unless there are transfer deals). So it's interesting when it says Russian teams will have the right to match. Since they will have no legal right to match, does this mean that they're going to send the mob after these players and 'convince' them to abandon their new contract and sign an equivalent deal in Russia? Having a right to match would require an agreement between the leagues, you can't just arbitrarily add one. This is all true, Graeme, but i think that what we've seen over the past few years is that unless you're an absolute elite talent (Ovechkin, Malkin) and can command league max salaries, many of the good - to - very good russian born players will be very heavily enticed to stay in Russia. I mean imagine you're a top 6 forward quality NHL player. You are born in Russia. Your family lives in Russia. You know the language, the culture - you are comfortable. You have 2 options. One, you can go to north america, toil in the minors for a few years, pay your dues - and then in a few years start making 2 - 3million dollars a year. You will be taxed heavily. The other option is - you stay in your home country, live near your family, keep in contact with your friends. You immediately join the "big" club and make $3 or $4m - mostly tax free. This seems like a no brainer to me - even if the money was WORSE, id likely take option 2 just so I could be closer to my family. I hardly can blame these guys & as more and more of them start to do this, the qualty of their league will continue to increase so even THAT wont be an issue any more. The NHL needs to wake up. They've had it good for too long to the detriment of countries who produce hockey players...including Canada. Bingo. Its life & we need to move on. Taxes, family, culture will always be huge draws in Russia - and ones we cannot, and should not, try to compete with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocket-1 Posted May 13, 2009 Report Share Posted May 13, 2009 Whoa! This sounds like it's about to get a little more exciting. Are we witnessing the slow and steady siphoning of Russian-born players from the NHL for good? That would be a shame, as Russians make up hugely exciting portion of the present NHL. Just imagine not having players like Ovechkin, Markov, Datsyuk, Malkin, and co. in ten years from now. Believe me that the biggest talent in Russia wants to play here and not in the KHL, especially after what happened this year with the way the players didn't get paid towards the end of their seasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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