Just Name One

The NY Times has an article titled Russia Is Luring Back N.H.L. Stars by Michael Schwirtz.

I must have missed something, I thought.  Some star must have chosen Russia over playing in the NHL (my NHL is sans periods).

I was setup with quotes like this one:

“Less and less players are going to the N.H.L. and more and more are coming back here,” Yashin said in an interview in English after the game. “From my perspective, there is a competition between Russian clubs and the N.H.L. for the best product on the ice.”

Ok, I must have missed a few players.

I was waiting for names.  Just… want… one.

Former N.H.L. stars like Darius Kasparaitis and lesser-known N.H.L. veterans like Oleg Tverdovsky and Oleg Petrov have also settled in the league.

Names!  But just like Yashin, these names weren’t of willing jumpers, but those disinterested in playing in the North American minor league system.

In the end, I never saw the name I was looking for.  It was part “no NHL team wants me”-bitterness and part “the Russian League will soon pay players”-hype.

I’m not sure what to make of a Russian or European NHL competitor.  It could be great (round the clock hockey!), but it could be messy (what league?  what city?  who’s really tops?).  If nothing else, we all get to brush up on our geography.

The Times article set me up for something it didn’t deliver: an NHL star lured back to the Motherland.  It could happen in the future, but it certainly hasn’t yet.

Posted by David M Singer on Feb 29, 2008 at 02:28 AM
Euro Hockey • NHL

Comments:

  1. Regardless the money will always be in the NHL and where the money is the best players follow.

    I can’t imagine a league without the Alexander Ovechkin, Alex Kovalev and the slew of other Russian NHL superstars.

    Posted by Sidney Crosby on Mar 14, 2008 at 09:55 PM

  2. I thought it was a pretty sloppy article as well. There are North Americans who’ve been lured over to the Russian league; most have been NHL washouts as well. But if the writer had looked a little harder he would have dug up former Calgary Flames dman Giordanno (pls check name, I can’t at the moment). He jumped at a better offer from Superleague just before this season; while it was mostly ignored, I wondered if it wasn’t the beginning of a talent war.

    Posted by CT on Mar 17, 2008 at 01:06 PM
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