Are NHL and KHL destined to duel?
By: Brian McNally
Examiner Staff Writer
11/18/09 3:29 PM EST
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| NHL commissioner Gary Bettman might face a growing problem in the form of the KHL. |
There was a summit in Washington, D.C. last week. No it had nothing to do with Dmitry Medvedev or President Obama -- although those men have their own problems to work out.
This meeting between Russia and North America was all about hockey. The NHL thinks the upstart Kontinental Hockey League -- made up of teams in Russia and former Soviet bloc states -- disrespects valid player contracts. For now, the KHL is signing aging Russian stars and younger players who can get more money playing back home thanks to big-revenue clubs there and the NHL salary cap.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman met with KHL President Alexander Medvedev at Verizon Center last week. Unlike pro soccer -- where transfer agreements are commonplace -- the NHL and KHL are free to target each other's players without compensation. That's a problem. Last year, Nashville forward Alexander Radulov left his team with a year left on his deal to play in Russia. He made more money, but the Predators received nothing in return.
"I think that if we're going to look for ways to cooperate, the KHL and the Russian Hockey Federation, from our standpoint, are going to need to respect our valid contracts," Bettman said. "That's something to date hasn't happened."
It's a viewpoint Medvedev doesn't agree with. For him, NHL teams have long used the KHL as a farm system. Stars like Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin leave home for North America while the teams that originally signed them get nothing in return, either.
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