TSN: Ilya Kovalchuk Staying in KHL for 2017-18 Season

[The Macho King]

The NHL does not care about European hockey, they are only interesting in one thing – the players. But can you imagine that if there was a transfer of leading FC Barcelona´s player to Mancherster United, the MU would pay a sum which is equal to the player´s one month salary? You even dont buy a player from Eastern Europe for such a marginal sum (in soccer – vorky). In hockey nobody has ever wanted to establish transfer rules. We have always heard only one thing – the NHL is the best and greatest league and nothing can be done. Have anybody tried to understand how it works in NBA or MLB? How much money they pay for European, Asian or Latin American players? But paying for future stars of Kuznetsov´s or Laine´s calibre a sum which is two times lower than NHL player´s minimal salary or even leaving a player (to NHL club) for „thank you“ is normal?

KHL leadership asked me a few years ago how it is possible to make a transfer of a player with valid NHL contract to Russian club. Radulov´s way of „transfer“ from Nashville to Salavat Yulaev was unacceptable of course. I was sadden then, but I studied NHL-NHL CBA for next couple of months, it is 600 pages. Then I got an idea that if a player retires from the NHL, he is free to sign in his Motherland. I called to several influential agents to consult the situation. They said me that they heard about such a scenario for the first time. I said to the KHL leadership what I found out and a half o year later, SKA signed Ilya Kovalchuk. If the people want to do something, they will do it. If they don´t want, they will not.


Are NHL clubs willing to pay for transfers?

If there are proper rules, they will. In early 90´s, when horrible things happened in Russia, the NHL clubs directly contacted Dynamo Moscow to pay solid sums, at the time, to Dynamo for their players. I remember how Ottawa paid 700 000 USD for Alexei Yashin in 1992. It was a very good sum at the time. Average NHL salary was two times lower at the time. So, NHL clubs paid money for Dynamo´s players, but CSKA´s players simply run away. How much money did NHL clubs pay to Russian clubs for Tarasenko, Panarin or Bobrovsky? I am sure, in better case, it was „thank you.“


Igor Kuperman
Former Winnipeg Jets and Phoenix Coyotes official
Original source sport-express.ru

This is all pointless though. Panarin was a FA when he came over. I assume Tarasenko and Bobrovsky were not under contract (or if they were, it contained a specific "out"-clause for the NHL).

The player ultimately decided where they wanted to play, and signed a contract to that effect. No one was breached in that way. Kovalchuk did not do that. Kovalchuk was under contract until the sun expands in New Jersey. No one put a gun to his head to sign that contract. He signed it willingly. He also would have been free to sign in SKA, in Stockholm, in Germany, in the ECHL, or any beer league in the world if he preferred. But he promised to play in New Jersey. And then he decided he wasn't going to honor that promise anymore, and went to play in the KHL instead. Comparing that to other situations is completely missing the issue.

No one cares if Nikita Nesterov plays in the KHL. He's not under contract - so happy trails. Hell, no one cares if a US or Canadian player decides to play in the KHL (other than for questions like "why the hell would they do that?" and the sheer oddity of it). As long as you're not in breach of a contract, do what you want. The leagues (or home countries or whatever) don't own the players. The teams do while they're under contract. That's it.

 

[vorky]

That is exactly a problem of the NHL - players do not have a right to terminate a contract or to be traded to another league. It happens in soccer all the time, no problem. But it can not happen in the NHL, therefore Kovy & Datsyuk had to "retire"

 

[The Macho King]

That is exactly a problem of the NHL - players do not have a right to terminate a contract or to be traded to another league. It happens in soccer all the time, no problem. But it can not happen in the NHL, therefore Kovy & Datsyuk had to "retire"

... okay. I don't see how that's relevant to anything, though. Because if they're under KHL contract, they similarly cannot be signed or "traded" to the NHL. Teams can buy out contracts to allow that to happen, or clauses can be written in to allow it (I believe the KHL often allows players to buy out their own contracts, and the NHL has allowed for "NHL or KHL/Swiss/SHL/FEL" type clauses to prevent players from having to play in the AHL or Juniors), but the transferability of contracts like in soccer isn't possible in any league.

One of the obvious reasons it wouldn't work? No other league is anywhere close to the NHL's level either in competition quality or contract value. Swiss players probably make the equivalent of AHL salaries in most instances - why would they transfer their contract? How could the Swiss league pay an NHLers salary that wanted to play there? Meanwhile, in soccer there are how many roughly equivalent leagues? The comparison is a meaningless one because it ignores all the nuances as to why the situations are how they are.

 

[HBK27]

I guarantee Shero got phone calls asking what they would want for him but Shero probably asked for a lot and in that sense, nobody called back for real trade offers. So yes, blame could probably still be placed on Shero.

And I guarantee that you're completely wrong.

How would Shero realistically even know what to request back without knowing how many teams Kovalchuk would even consider? Even if he did give them a vague outline of what it might take in a trade, that's still just a starting point for negotiations and the value shifts dramatically if Kovalchuk would only sign with one team and this is the Devils only opportunity to get something in return for him.

Kovalchuk's contract demands after being out of the league for so long and knowing you'd still have to trade SOMETHING of value to get him (regardless of what Shero did or didn't say, you know he's not just going to give the guy away) swayed teams from making a deal. Not Shero.

 

[Jerzey Devil]

That is exactly a problem of the NHL - players do not have a right to terminate a contract or to be traded to another league. It happens in soccer all the time, no problem. But it can not happen in the NHL, therefore Kovy & Datsyuk had to "retire"

What's the point of signing a contract then? Might as well just pay these guys per game or hourly.

 

[notsocommonsense]

I guarantee Shero got phone calls asking what they would want for him but Shero probably asked for a lot and in that sense, nobody called back for real trade offers. So yes, blame could probably still be placed on Shero.

I love when people "guarantee" something that they have no way of knowing or proving

 

[jedisports]

I cringe when he makes the news. He needs to stay in Russia professionally until the end of his career. In a perfect world, not one NHL team signs him in a year if he wants to return.

 

[Classic Devil]

That is exactly a problem of the NHL - players do not have a right to terminate a contract or to be traded to another league. It happens in soccer all the time, no problem. But it can not happen in the NHL, therefore Kovy & Datsyuk had to "retire"

That's the upside and the downside of a guaranteed contract.

 

[Slimmy]

Abandons his team and then comes back with a wish list lol. As good as he is/was I can't respect Kovy at all.

Abandoned his team? what about all those players leaving teams in Europe to go play for an NHL team when they are under contract?

 

[Jerzey Devil]

Abandoned his team? what about all those players leaving teams in Europe to go play for an NHL team when they are under contract?

They also abandoned their teams. This isn't hard. You're laughing at people for being upset that a player quits on his NHL team but you're obviously just as pissed that players do it to Euro teams.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Abandoned his team? what about all those players leaving teams in Europe to go play for an NHL team when they are under contract?

the difference is, those are draft-eligible players, not Kovalchuk, and others, for the most part.