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In a 24-hour period, two events occurred that illustrate just how muddy the waters remain between the NHL and Russia's new Continental Hockey League, when it comes to contracts and transfers and who is owed what in compensation.
Event No. 1: The Columbus Blue Jackets sign top prospect Nikita Filatov to an entry-level NHL contract, for the standard $875,000 (all figures U.S.) salary, plus bonuses. Even Filatov's former Russian team, Moscow's Central Red Army, acknowledges that he no longer has a contractual obligation to the team, but they want half-a-million dollars in compensation anyway.
Event No. 2: At an IIHF meeting Thursday in Zurich, the NHL and the Russian league achieve a truce of sorts in their ongoing war over transfer fees. According to a resolution adopted by the IIHF, the NHL and the Russian league will abide by each other's signed contracts, until such time as the two sides can negotiate a new transfer agreement.
To that end, the IIHF also formed a joint working group that will meet in early September to "see if there is any common ground for a possible new long-term player transfer agreement."
Two of the heavy hitters locked in the middle of the dispute — Bill Daly, the NHL's deputy commissioner, and Alexander Medvedev, president of the Continental League — were both appointed to the committee.
Just what sort of common ground they might find is anybody's guess, given how fractious the relationship between Russia and the NHL remains at the moment.
For now, it appears as if the Russian League will stop trying to coax players with signed contracts, such as Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins, back home, with promises of multi-zillion-dollar contracts.
Of course, sticking to that condition became a lot easier after every single prominent Russian player they tried to lure home — in pre-truce weeks — rejected their overtures. Even Sergei Fedorov, who was an unrestricted free agent and thus able to sell his services to the highest bidder, opted to play for the Washington Capitals next season on a comparatively modest one-year, $4-million contract, rather than play for higher pay in Russia.
Even though his best days may be behind him, Fedorov would have leant the kind of name recognition that the Continental League is seeking, a prime (and most importantly) home-grown box-office attraction of the sort that they'd been trying to repatriate. Instead, Fedorov will stay in the NHL, for at least one more year, so he can play with fellow Russians Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin and Viktor Kozlov on a young, but emerging Capitals team.
The Filatov issue is the most intriguing, however, given how clear he made it at the draft that his priority was playing in the NHL as soon as possible. That, in turn, coaxed the Blue Jackets into selecting him with the sixth overall choice — this, a year after the NHL en masse shied away from Russian teenagers, fearing that they couldn't convince them to come to North America anytime in the near future and that they might be wasting a pick. In fact, just the opposite seems to be happening.
The really high-end young Russians all seem to want to come. In Columbus's case, it isn't just Filatov either. They also had Maxim Mayorov at their rookie camp this past week. On talent alone, Mayorov should have gone in the first round in 2007. The Blue Jackets got him at No. 94, a steal on the basis of his ability level, but the sort of gamble that only a few teams were prepared to make in a year when only eight Russians were selected in a 211-player draft.
Mayorov intends to stay in North America for the rest of the summer, so he can adjust to the lifestyle and the language — and if he doesn't make Columbus outright this fall, he will be prepared for a minor-league apprenticeship.
This inability to stem the exodus must be disappointing for Medvedev, a man of wealth and power, the deputy director of Gazprom, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, who also owns SKA St. Petersburg, a Continental League team coached by Barry Smith, Scotty Bowman's long-time former assistant.
Thus far, most of the North American players heading to Russia are ones who couldn't find gainful employment in the NHL. Meanwhile, most of the Russians coming to Canada are the crème de la crème of their system, emerging talents that may one day push Ovechkin and Malkin.
So Medvedev's — and Russia's — frustrations are easy to understand.
Putting a dollar value on that, however, represents a major sticking point. Up until now, the NHL paid a flat transfer rate of $200,000 per player. CSKA wanted $500,000 for Filatov's rights. In a statement, the team acknowledged that while Filatov "was dismissed" from CSKA, "the club continues to own the rights to the sports activities of the specified player under laws relating to the activities of the professional athlete in the Russian Federation."
Whatever that means … In an e-mail message from Zurich, Daly said he was "confident both Filatov and Columbus followed all the rules and that the signing of the player was both legal and appropriate."
Translation: From the NHL's perspective, Filatov is playing wherever Columbus places him next year — and that compensation can await a new transfer agreement, if and when, it is achieved.
On Thursday, it looked as if there was a moderate thawing of relations between the two warring sides — and words of cautious optimism from Daly, from IIHF president René Fasel and from Players' Association boss Paul Kelly (Medvedev left the meeting early, apparently).
Still, achieving a modest truce is not the same as forging a lasting peace — and until that happens, the Cold War between Russia and the NHL will continue, with all their young talent remaining in the crosshairs.
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