The KHL (Russia’s Continental Hockey League) is accusing the National Hockey League of violating a moratorium agreement between the two leagues to not sign players from either side who are under contract.

The claim is that the Los Angeles Kings signing of both Vjateslav Voinov and Andrei Loktionov breaks the moratorium because both were under contract.

The NHL’s Bill Daly was quick to dispute the claim saying the NHL approved both contracts “on the basis of evidence that the two players were free of contractual obligations elsewhere.

“The NHL is not in violation of any agreement with the KHL, nor are we in violation of our long-standing policy to respect the contracts of other leagues.”

Realistically, the Russians will be the losers here. Other than maybe Alexander Radulov, most of the players leaving the NHL were already out of contract and not likely to be resigned. The Russians, meanwhile, stand to lose even more of their younger talent.

Until the KHL can rival the NHL in terms of skill (there’s no doubt they have the economic clout to offer gobs of money to players), not many big names will shun the NHL.

Trackback Post

Related Posts