KHL Season 2019/20

[vorky]

Makarov on a try-out contract with Avangard after the team has been decimated by injuries. How do try-out contracts work, by the way? What makes a contract try-out level? I mean, a regular contract would be something like, "We sign this for two years. You'll be paid this amount of money per year." but I have no idea what a try-out contract includes, other than the obvious fact that it is a short-term one. Do players receive money for it? How long can it be?

I was actually post this to transfer news, oops. Any way to delete this?

Try-out contract is defined by article 26 of the Legal Reglement, here.

Try-out is usually signed for a pre-season period. A player can sign a try-out contract during the regular season as well, but such a contract can not take longer than a month and can not be effective after December 27th. Only player with NSA status (aka UFA in the NHL) can sign a try-out contract during the regular season. A player can sign two try-out contracts with the same team during the regular season. So, you sign try-out with a player on September 1, then prolong for a month on October 1. Then, you need to sign a standard contract or nothing. Player under try-out contract can play a maximum of three regular-season games.

Salary can not be lower than minimal salary in the Russian Federation.

A player can sign try-out contract with just one club for the same period of time, otherwise he is suspended for six months. He can sign try-out with another club after his previous try-out is finished. So, nothing special here.

Try-out contract can be terminated anytime by any side, without paying a financial compensation to the other side of the contract.

 

[hansomreiste]

I don't know exact details about try-out contracts so I'm not going to answer that part (my understanding is you do receive money and it can be, I think, up to a 1 month long) but you delete the message by pressing "delete" at the bottom of your post

But this is how it looks for me,

Am I missing something? It has been like that since the new version came. There is never a "delete" button as before. I also sometimes see posts like "delete this" so I assumed we filthy peasants are simply not allowed to delete our own posts.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Am I missing something? It has been like that since the new version came. There is never a "delete" button as before. I also sometimes see posts like "delete this" so I assumed we filthy peasants are simply not allowed to delete our own posts.

I don't know why that is.. Feels nice to be above the peasants though

Klinkhammer signed with Avangard as well, makes sense, they said to be looking for a player like that. So all they have left to do is to add the NHL center/mystery man/not Zacha.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Minsk have won with a shutout Against Amur which makes perfect sense but still. 3 wins in 4 games, nice little run there. Since they added Prince they look so much deeper as well, very nice.

Riga, meanwhile, keeps drowning largely thanks to Gudlevskis' tragic .87 Sv%. Much like it was the case with Minsk at the start of the season, you can't hope these teams win if they need 4 goals on average to do so.

 

[su24]

Minsk has won in OT.
33 years old Andrei Kostitsyn is the fastest forward on the team (that's stats, not just my impression). He's a beast this year and looks like he still could play in the NHL. The 2nd best Belarusian forward is WHL alumni Martynov which tells you how bad the rest of them. Kitarov, Pavlovich, Demkov, Stepanov should just quit playing hockey. Bring Protas, Sharangovich, Sushko, Oksentyuk, Kolyachonok, Mikhalchuk back home and that would be exciting team to watch.
Protas just scored 3 points in his debut for the Washington in preseason game and dropped some jaws with his passing skills and hockey IQ. Where's that Austrian doubter?
Vorobei was a top-pairing defenseman for the Pelicans in Champions league games. I guess Liiga is at the VHL level now.
Prince and Paret already expressed desire to accept Belarusian citizenship. That's terrible news.

 

[Rigafan]

Can we all celebrate this current start of Vityaz? Lost 1 in 7 and top of the West!

While I'm loyal to Riga, Vityaz I have a huge soft sport for in my heart. No Idea why, they just seem like complete underdogs so its nice to see them starting so hot. I hope it continues! Then maybe they won't be prime candidates to be kicked out of the league.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Vorobei was a top-pairing defenseman for the Pelicans in Champions league games. I guess Liiga is at the VHL level now.

Not the league as a whole but Pelicans defense definitely is. Alexander Shchemerov gets even more TOI than Vorobey there and he is even more clearly a VHL player. It' just good for both of them Avto and Finns have this thing going. And well, it doesn't take a genius to deduct that if we consider Liiga to be below the KHL (undisputable) so the player who barely missed the cut in the KHL would do just fine in Liiga. Doesn't mean they wouldn't be VHL players in Russia. Vityaz' example shows SKA - Neva probably had at least 10 guys who would have done very well in the Liiga last year if given a chance but they did play in the VHL.

Regarding Vityaz, yeah, it's great. Podolsk's SKA - Neva very much a successful move. 7 games in seems like barring some major injuries they have already made the PO.

Another thing to be mentioned, the team coached by this guy

is 7/0 at the start again.

 

[su24]

Not the league as a whole but Pelicans defense definitely is. Alexander Shchemerov gets even more TOI than Vorobey there and he is even more clearly a VHL player. It' just good for both of them Avto and Finns have this thing going. And well, it doesn't take a genius to deduct that if we consider Liiga to be below the KHL (undisputable) so the player who barely missed the cut in the KHL would do just fine in Liiga. Doesn't mean they wouldn't be VHL players in Russia. Vityaz' example shows SKA - Neva probably had at least 10 guys who would have done very well in the Liiga last year if given a chance but they did play in the VHL.

Liiga is below KHL? Do you know where the whole World Champions team came from? I'm pretty sure that those two are pretty even and the bottom Finnish teams would beat teams like Minsk or Riga. More money doesn't mean better teams. Dinamo Minsk just lost both games for the Belarus national cup to Molodechno and Neman while they looked absolutely competitive in any KHL game this year. Belarus Extraleague average player like Belevich goes to the KHL team and scores points in bunches. The KHL level is overrated here.

 

[SoundAndFury]

I used to practice debating and we would have to prepare the arguments for both sides, regardless of our opinion. That's what you remind me of. You probably could overwhelm yourself with arguments against your points but you just don't bother. Literally every sentence you wrote down asks for an immediate counter-argument.

"I'm pretty sure that those two are pretty even and the bottom Finnish teams would beat teams like Minsk or Riga" - 1) you are "pretty sure"? Confidence-inspiring; 2) an argument could be made HPK (who won the Liiga last year in case you didn't know) roster was way closer to that of Riga and Minsk than CSKA or Avangard. "More money doesn't mean better teams" - quite obviously it does as the KHL teams get best Liiga players to the point where Liiga has very little to offer.

[Mod]

 

[cska78]

I think there is no point watching KHL CSKA are rolling through everyone, see you in the semi-finals

 

[Go Donbass]

I think there is no point watching KHL CSKA are rolling through everyone, see you in the semi-finals

Vityaz are in first place in the west

 

[hansomreiste]

I think there is no point watching KHL CSKA are rolling through everyone, see you in the semi-finals

While CSKA are still heavy favourites to win it all and rightly so, I'm surprisingly pleasant with how balanced and decent the league looks overall. This was what I had been asking for so many years: teams that are not necessarily contenders but with a chance to win some games here and there... As of now, except for a couple of terrible clubs, we have everything. This year, I can finally say that someone could at least challenge CSKA or take games away from them. This is a perfect start. With the implementation of hard cap next season, hopefully it'll get even better.

Eastern Conference alone provides us with lots of great action every year. After years of misery, I trained my mind to treat the league as "eastern conference only" where the winners of that conference get the title. So, this adds enough drama and unpredictability to keep my hype levels up.

By the way, do Traktor always play like they did in Almaty yesterday? I'm a huge fan of Skudra's "Just punch them. If they score a goal, keep punching. If you score, then I punch you." type of war of attrition style but geez that Traktor I watched yesterday was total disaster. No speed, no production, no nothing. They just skate and pass the puck with some weak attempts. Yikes. I hope this was a one-off thing because I'm sure I'd love to watch some Skudra hockey in playoffs.

 

[SoundAndFury]

By the way, do Traktor always play like they did in Almaty yesterday? I'm a huge fan of Skudra's "Just punch them. If they score a goal, keep punching. If you score, then I punch you." type of war of attrition style but geez that Traktor I watched yesterday was total disaster. No speed, no production, no nothing. They just skate and pass the puck with some weak attempts. Yikes. I hope this was a one-off thing because I'm sure I'd love to watch some Skudra hockey in playoffs.

8th game in 13 days, all on the road.. The gas tanks are simply empty, I'd guess.

 

[su24]

Minsk is destroying Jokerit with five 19-20 years old players on the ice. Yeryomenko plays on the 1st pair with Gragniani in his KHL debut. Deryabin is on the 2nd. 18 y.o. Denisov and 20 y.o. Drozdov would be playing as well, but they are injured. Pavlenko and Litvinov could play instead of the dead weight like Kitarov and co. So Minsk could use like nine 18-21 y.o. players in this game and that would be even a better team. Considering that 8 or 9 best players of that age are in the CHL, NHL or AHL camps you have to think: is that's KHL level so low or Belarus has unreal talent coming up.
I think that's KHL level. Terribly overrated.

 

[su24]

5:0. Not so bad for the worst KHL team as it was predicted by our Lithuanian friend. 2nd shutout in a row for Enroth, this time with the 1st pairing defenseman playing his 1st ever KHL game.

 

[Peter25]

Jokerit looks too old and slow. They have a good team on paper but they cannot keep up playing against younger and faster players.

 

[SoundAndFury]

5:0. Not so bad for the worst KHL team as it was predicted by our Lithuanian friend. 2nd shutout in a row for Enroth, this time with the 1st pairing defenseman playing his 1st ever KHL game.

Yes, this one game means everything. Please make a point how any Liiga team could wipe the floor with any KHL team because even Minsk, whom every Liiga team can beat, won against Jokerit 5-0. Would go perfectly well with your usual logic.

In case you haven't noticed, Severstal won against Avangard 5-1 a week ago, I'm sure plenty of far-reaching conclusions can be made out of that one as well.

Also, as a sidenote, what is your weird obsession with the fact I'm Lithuanian?

 

[Peter25]

I don't have had time to watch too many KHL games this season but based on those games that I have seen the play looks faster in the league this year than in previous years. Might be due to many teams switching to smaller rinks. But for example the game against Kazan and Nizhnekamsk that I saw a couple of days ago was very fast and entertaining. Lots of fast end-to-end hockey, players skating hard, and both teams playing aggressive and active style of hockey. Hopefully this is where the league is going as a whole and fewer and fewer teams choose to play passive neutral zone trapping hockey.

 

[vorky]

Comparing Liiga and KHL is ridiculous. Yes, it may happen that a Liiga team would win a game against Dinamo Minsk. But I doubt any Liiga team would survive all regular-season, I mean playing every other day, travelling. Liiga players are not used to it. They would be a dead-team after a few weeks.

 

[Peter25]

Comparing Liiga and KHL is ridiculous. Yes, it may happen that a Liiga team would win a game against Dinamo Minsk. But I doubt any Liiga team would survive all regular-season, I mean playing every other day, travelling. Liiga players are not used to it. They would be a dead-team over a few weeks.

Agreed. I don't think any Liiga team could really compete in the KHL with their current rosters. Kärpät might be the only exception. I can see them fighting for a playoff spot, especially if they played in the eastern conference.

The overall level of talent in the Liiga is not very high though. This is why oldsters such as Kristian Kuusela, Juhamatti Aaltonen, Ossi Louhivaara and Juha-Pekka Haataja are still among the best players of that league. Another good example if Tomas Zaborsky, who could not break out in Salavat Yulayev Ufa, is among the best scoring forwards in the Liiga every year.

 

[su24]

Jokerit looks too old and slow. They have a good team on paper but they cannot keep up playing against younger and faster players.

18 y.o. Ilya Kazianin, who also made his KHL debut in that game, said that Dinamo-Molodechno is a much faster team than Jokerit. Molodechno is the 4th team of the Belarus Extraleague.

 

[Peter25]

18 y.o. Ilya Kazianin, who also made his KHL debut in that game, said that Dinamo-Molodechno is a much faster team than Jokerit. Molodechno is the 4th team of the Belarus Extraleague.

Might be true but hopefully you are not saying that Jokerit is below Belarus Extraleague level? Let's not get carried away here.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Agreed. I don't think any Liiga team could really compete in the KHL with their current rosters. Kärpät might be the only exception. I can see them fighting for a playoff spot, especially if they played in the eastern conference.

Karpat and Tappara would probably do fine-ish, as in "would survive". This su24 guy thinks Minsk or Dinamo Riga would be a basement team in Liiga which obviously goes against all the facts understandable to us mere mortals but not to his superior logic.

Might be true but hopefully you are not saying that Jokerit is below Belarus Extraleague level? Let's not get carried away here.

Well he made a point that Liiga is above KHL and subsequently NHL because Finns won the WC this year against KHL and NHL players. So yeah.

He also made the point how Belevich doing well in the KHL makes KHL the same level as Belarus league. Because Bobrovsky doing well in Philly obviously made NHL at the same level as Kuznya. All makes sense you know.

 

[su24]

Might be true but hopefully you are not saying that Jokerit is below Belarus Extraleague level? Let's not get carried away here.

No, I'm saying that overall level of the KHL is not that high, especially since every Russian player who has a chance to make NHL moves overseas. The most talented Belarusians would rather play in the WHL or AHL than KHL. Russian teams can't have more than 6 foreigners and their system doesn't produce enough quality players to fill all the teams.
Dinamo-Molodechno has plenty of players with KHL experience BTW. Artur Gavrus plays there and a lot of Dinamo-Minsk players moving between teams since every Extraleague team is basically a farm for them.

 

[Peter25]

No, I'm saying that overall level of the KHL is not that high, especially since every Russian player who has a chance to make NHL moves overseas. The most talented Belarusians would rather play in the WHL or AHL than KHL. Russian teams can't have more than 6 foreigners and their system doesn't produce enough quality players to fill all the teams.
Dinamo-Molodechno has plenty of players with KHL experience BTW. Artur Gavrus plays there and a lot of Dinamo-Minsk players moving between teams since every Extraleague team is basically a farm for them.

I agree that the level of the KHL should be higher than it is today and that the flow of young players from Russia to North America must be stopped. Players leaving at 15-18 is unacceptable and hurts Russian hockey more than anything.

But the KHL is still the best league in Europe by far.