Russia ready go to to war with NHL

[Bear-Arms]

MOSCOW -- Russia has declared an all-out war on the NHL, accusing the North Americans of stealing its best players.

Russian hockey officials were up in arms after several top players, including teenage prodigy Evgeni Malkin, the Pittsburgh Penguins' No. 1 pick in 2004, walked out on their contracts with Russian clubs to pursue a career in the NHL.

The Malkin case has been front-page news on both sides of the Atlantic since the young Russian secretly left his club Metallurg Magnitogorsk at Helsinki airport earlier this month.

Malkin, considered the best player in the world outside the NHL, vanished for several days before resurfacing in the United States last week and declaring his wish to play for Pittsburgh.

"This is pure sports terrorism," Metallurg general director Gennady Velichkin told Reuters following the sudden disappearance of his best player.

Velichkin said his club had already hired an American lawyer to look after their interests. Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and Russian champions AK Bars Kazan said they also planned legal action against NHL clubs.

Lokomotiv are seeking compensation from the Edmonton Oilers and the Phoenix Coyotes after losing their best forwards, Alexei Mikhnov and Andrei Taratukhin, while Kazan also accuses Phoenix of poaching its top player, Enver Lisin.

Russian clubs received backing from the country's hockey chief Vladislav Tretiak and Sports Minister Vyacheslav Fetisov.

"We can't just sit around and do nothing while the NHL takes our best players," Tretiak told local media.

But the NHL said it would not negotiate compensation packages with any Russian club after the European nation refused to sign a transfer agreement with the North American league.

Russia remains the only major hockey power not to join the deal, approved by the International Ice Hockey Federation in 2005. Under the agreement Metallurg would have received a basic $200,000 fee for Malkin. The Russian club reportedly wanted at least 10 times more.

Tretiak said the Malkin case was the main reason behind their decision not to sign the agreement while the Metallurg boss slammed the offer as "disgraceful."

Malkin has faxed a letter to Metallurg, asking them to annul his contract, which he said he had signed under pressure.

Source: Canada.com

 

[Don Wassall]

The Malkin case is really creating hard feelings in Russia. As a big Penguins fan I obviously am very happy that he has chosen to play for the NHL and Pittsburgh -- but it isn't totally clear if it was Malkin's free will choice or not.


It's very difficult to get Russia's side of the story because of the always knee-jerk xenophobic nature of the U.S. corporate media.I heardMetallurg'sGM Velichkin (mentioned in the story above)being interviewedon a Pittsburgh sports talk show the other day and he kept saying that Malkin was "kidnapped"from Russia to Toronto.His English was decent but not fluent and "kidnap" may not have been the word he was looking for. But all the talk show host and his audience could do was make fun of Velichkin. Typical ignorant Americans. I'd love to hear one single NHL executive or other spokesman try to do an interview in Russian with a Russian media outlet.


I just wonder if Malkin has been separated from his family in a manner that may do him and them a lot of harm, as far as them being able to see each other now. Malkin doesn't speak a word of English so who knows how committed he is to the NHL. But at any rate he's here, and he and Sidney Crosby should help lift the bottom-feeding Penguins from terrible to possibly competitive this season. It may be the Penguins' last season in Pittsburgh

but that's a differentissue.

 

[Realgeorge]

... and sometimes it doesn't "work out" for the imported Russian player. Petr Sykora found urban America so vile that he quit his American team, forfeited salary, and moved back to Czechland. The same team had a fancy Russian for a year (Alex Semin) but then he went home as well for similar reasons. Supposedly each player is here to stay in the USofA. Hope they are smart enough to NOT live in an American city. Some idiots on the Washington team think it's just great to live downtown!

The Malkin story is bizarre. The cbc.ca site has some details. "Kidnap" may be fairly accurate

 

[Bear-Arms]

Kind of weird hearing Tretiak say "We can't just sit around and do nothing while the NHL takes our best players," when he once said coaching Belfour, Hasek, and others was the next best thing to playing in the NHL.


Realgeorge, I found a killer gif of that Ovechkin goal you were talking months back (its a Russian hockey thread after all):

 

[Realgeorge]

Very juicy, the new Russian swagger. Russia is rich, America is poor, Russia has Putin, a White Nationalist in charge, USofA has George Bush the imbecile Illuminist white-hater. The burgeoning Russian economy is flexing muscle, and it's real when Russian sport leaders talk of regaining Russian emigre hockey players.

Gary the Eel Bettman wags his Jewish tongue and lies: "We're not worried about the Russian threat to the NHL." Like hell he's not! The new Continental League is awash in real money (Russian oil and a stable Rouble based on real value), and means business when it plans to pay Russian stars big bucks ... er, Roubles.

In the short term the Eastern European players will continue with their NHLing ways. Why not? It's fun, they have all their friends here, American girls are all over them like white on rice, and they're having the wing-ding of their lives. But the NHL is top-to-bottom a greedy Jew affair, funded by the hollow Dollar and its losing connection to Israel and America's stupid overseas wars that can't be won.

America's economy will tank and fancy European imported players -- of every sport -- will go back to Europe and Russia to collect real value for their efforts. The extremely effective GM of the Wash Capitals, George McPhee, honestly assesses that Slavic players are now a huge risk because they can get paid far more in rich Russia than in stinky Jew poor America.

Here's an excerpt from today's article in AP, where Evgeni Malkin says he will stay with his friend in Pittsburgh. Even Gretzky weighs in, confirming the tough decision for the young hockey star:

"Malkin's agent, J.P. Barry, confirmed his client received a lucrative "back-channel" offer to play in Russia, but stressed it was a deal Malkin had no intention of accepting.

"That's not what he's interested in doing," Barry said. "If this was all about money, he would go to Russia, because he could make more in Russia than he ever could in the NHL. Evgeni's decision is he wants to stay in Pittsburgh."

Even if Malkin was interested, he couldn't jump leagues until after his contract with the Penguins expires next summer. International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel has threatened disciplinary actionâ€â€￾including disqualification from Olympic playâ€â€￾against any league signing a player under contract in another league."


[url]http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=Ag8_.kYfB_Ir7mBEqjkTXU g5nYcB?slug=ap-malkin-russianoffer&prov=ap&type=lgns [/url]

 

[Don Wassall]

It looks like Jaromir Jagr has signed with Avangard Omsk, which will pay him far more than anything the NHL would have offered. Jagr is one of my all-time favorite players and is the best non-Canadian to ever play in the NHL.


With thekind of moneyapparently being offeredby Russian teamsit only makes sense for Europeans to play closer to their home countries. This could quickly develop into a reverse migration avalanche. And though some might like to see theNHL return to its roots as far as the origin of its players, it won't take long for some big-name North Americans to start signingwith Russian teams too, as happened during the 2004-'05 lockout.


[url]http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/hockey/nhl/07/04/bc.hk o.jagr.avangard.ap/index.html[/url]


Edited by: Don Wassall