Kukla's Korner Hockey
Anyone Else Think It Is All About The Money?
by Paul on 06/10/10 at 08:48 AM ET
Comments (5)
from Russia Today,
There is a high possibility that New Jersey Devils forward Ilya Kovalchuk will return to Russian hockey in the summer, the player’s agent told Sport-Express newspaper.
Yury Nikolaev has confirmed the info that Kovalchuk, who has not signed a new contract with his club in the NHL, is now in talks with KHL side SKA Saint Petersburg….
“The $40 million figure has been pulled out of a hat and is clearly overstated. But the information about the length of a contract is correct,” Nikolaev stressed, adding that such exaggerated reports “help them in the negotiations.”
“Ilya has a desire to play in Russia until the Sochi Olympics [in 2014],” he added.
Filed in: NHL Teams | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Ilya+Kovalchuk, KHL,
Comments
His agent is just using his Leverage ! That league is in Shambles !! teams going bankrupt, Not paying players ETC !!
Posted by Evilpens on 06/10/10 at 09:36 AM ET
Medvedev has been openly courting Kovalchuk and talking about bringing him to SKA St. Petersburg since July 1st, 2009, so that’s not exactly surprising, but I get the feeling that the agent’s comments (the Google translation of the article is decent) also about leverage as he hints that Salavat Yulaev and another team are interested as well…
And this is an agent talking to Igor Larin, who’s somewhere between the Bruce Garrioch of Russian hockey and their Stan Fischler. Larin’s the first one to lament the “poor, misunderstood Russian” player when a “legionnaire” struggles in the NHL, he counts grumpy Viktor Fedorov among his “expert” friends, and he’s been convinced that every Russian hockey player secretly dreams of coming home to play since the days of the Superleague. Larin’s a “shift disturber” of the first order, and he’s very happily treading in the rumor pile.
Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 06/10/10 at 10:01 AM ET
If the NHL has no agreement to let their players go to the 2014 Sochi Olympics, look for many Russian born NHL’ers to head back over there until the 2015 NHL season…
It is going to be an absolute necessity for them to win that gold medal, as it was for the Canadians in Vancouver - and with the possibility that NHL players will not be able to take part (legally) then this may be a viable option for those players.
So yes, it may be about money, but I think the upcoming winter Olympics are even more important…
Posted by WingMan from The Q C on 06/10/10 at 12:05 PM ET
NHL not participating in the Olympics is just a thinly veiled smokescreen to gain leverage on the players and more importantly the IOC. It is going to happen. What I wouldn’t risk if I were Kovalchuk is a contract that is worth Ed Belfour type Billions that is not worth the paper it is written on since the teams seem to fold weekly,
Posted by hockey1919 from mid-atlantic on 06/10/10 at 05:50 PM ET
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good ridance
Posted by Killerdg93 on 06/10/10 at 09:33 AM ET