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A Full-Scale War
by Alanah McGinley on 07/22/08 at 11:11 AM ET
Comments (3)
From Eric McErlain at the Sporting News,
It was just last week that I warned that Russia’s nascent Kontinental Hockey League represented a legitimate threat to the way that the NHL did business.
Now, here we are just a week later, and the brewing competition between the two leagues over hockey talent—in particular Russian-born hockey talent—is threatening to escalate into a full-scale war.
Eric reviews the events of the past week, then further explores the long-term impact all this might have on the NHL.
Filed in: NHL Talk, Non-NHL Hockey, European Hockey | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: khl,
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Primis, your beliefs tend to fall in line with mine.
I wonder why no one has mentioned one team has dropped out of the KHL and others may soon follow?
Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 07/22/08 at 02:02 PM ET
I wonder why no one has mentioned one team has dropped out of the KHL and others may soon follow?
Well Paul, no reason to let facts get in the way of a good story!!!
Just like despite all the bluster about the “Continental” part of the league name, so far teams outside of the former Soviet umbrella have not been interested in joining.
KHL signed away Duvie Wescott and Mark Hartigan yesterday. Again… they won’t exactly be missed.
The league I *can* see the KHL possibly damaging is the AHL. And even that is suspect.
Posted by Primis on 07/23/08 at 07:51 AM ET
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This is ridiculous. Who cares? Why is everyone so afraid of this league? SO far all they’ve managed to siphon off are the rejects and also-rans that haven’t exactly been desired by NHL teams anyways. Radulov is the lone exception, and even he isn’t a premier player.
The Russian hockey program isn’t what it once was anyways. Let them all go to the KHL for all we care. Their ticket/crowd revenue can’t maintain a healthy contingent of Russian NHL-caliber players anyways, and the really good ones are going to end up in the NHL anyways when the KHL digs itself into debt it can’t escape.
15 years ago, this would be a huge deal. Now? The Russian has been marginalized in the NHL, for the most part. Swedes, Finns, Czechs, Slovaks, Latvian, Swiss, Germans… these countries are just some that have an increased presence in the NHL now. Where are great Russian defensemen nowadays? Or the great Russian goalies? They’ve slipped. Instead we’ve got NHL players now from Slovenia, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Norway…
Let them go. Let the KHL run itself into the ground, let Russia set its hockey program behind even further. Even let Malkin, Kovalchuk, and Ovechkin leave if they want—the NHL would survive just fine wihtout them.
The KHL has little hope of doing anything but fail. If the NHL wants to, it can simply drive the prices up for non-premier players so much that the KHL can’t afford them, or that they horribly overpay them to keep them.
This is small market vs big market. And a small market cannot wage war against a big market and win.
It really is stupid that people are worried here. Do you really think that KHL owners are going to take huge financial baths year after year after year and continue on this path when they can’t possibly recoup it?
Posted by Primis on 07/22/08 at 02:00 PM ET