Post by icing101 on Jun 29, 2004 14:12:26 GMT -5
Russians seek `fair deal' from NHL
Tough talk over expired transfer agreement
`We're tired of being treated like poor relatives'
MICHAEL MAINVILLE
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
MOSCOW—Alexander Ovechkin, the Russian phenom selected as the first pick in this year's National Hockey League entry draft, has been wearing a Moscow Dynamo jersey since he was old enough to skate.
He joined Dynamo's hockey school at the age of 6 and has become its pride and joy — a potential superstar who this season had 13 goals and 23 points in 56 games skating with the Russian league club's top line.
"He is a typical example of how we prepare our players. He's a member of the Moscow Dynamo family," says Alexei Panfilov, the club's sports director. "We've been preparing him for most of his life to play for Dynamo. And now we're going to lose him."
But not without a fight. Fed up with losing top talents to the NHL for what they say is a pittance in compensation, hockey clubs here are getting tough.
"We're tired of being treated like poor relatives," says Vsevolod Kukushkin of the Russian Hockey Federation. "We want to be treated like equal partners, we want respect and a fair deal."
The number of Europeans playing in the NHL is at a record high, some 30 per cent of about 1,000 players this season. For the last three years, transfers between the NHL and European hockey clubs have been governed by an agreement with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).
Under the deal, which expired at the end of the recent world championship, NHL clubs provided the IIHF with about $10 million (all figures U.S.) a year to distribute to European clubs whose players had signed contracts in the NHL. European clubs would get about $220,000 for a first-round draft pick and about $140,000 for a player selected in the remaining rounds.
But Russian clubs are saying these figures amount to chump change.
"To prepare a player like Ovechkin, a top talent, takes years of effort," Kukushkin says. "The NHL should be paying $1 million for a player like Ovechkin. That's the market value."
The Dynamo club has gone even further, saying it would want $2.5 million to $3 million for Ovechkin, whose contract with the club doesn't expire until April 30, 2006.
Other national associations in the IIHF are looking for a gradual increase in payments from the NHL under the same terms as before. The Russians want more.
"Every association is interested in the next deal being better than the one that has expired. It's only the Russians who are fundamentally against the deal as it was," IIHF spokesman Szymon Szemberg says.
Russian clubs want NHL teams to either pony up significantly more money or to negotiate one-on-one for player transfers.
"At the moment, NHL clubs don't recognize our contracts and can take any player they want. How is that fair?" Kukushkin says.
The NHL says it's ready to discuss some increase in transfer payments, but won't consider club-to-club negotiations or signing a separate deal with the Russians.
"We see that we have an obligation to continue to feed the development of these leagues — they provide us with great talent," NHL vice-president Bill Daly says.
But having to negotiate individually for players would be a huge headache for NHL teams and Daly doubts Russian clubs would benefit. "It would be a big mistake for them because overall the level of compensation would be less than they're getting today."
Agents are beginning to play a much stronger role in Russia's increasingly competitive league and Daly says that with no transfer agreement, top Russian prospects would simply negotiate for shorter contracts or release clauses in order to get into the NHL.
He says this year's draft went ahead as planned inspite of the fact that no deal is in place. If there is no agreement by the start of the 2004-05 season — if there is a season considering the possibility of a lockout — individual NHL clubs will decide then what to do about player transfers, Daly says.
In that case, a team like the Washington Capitals, could simply sign Ovechkin without paying any compensation because Russian league contracts aren't legally binding outside the country.
Russian clubs aren't ruling out taking NHL teams to court if that happens. Kukushkin says that would be a last resort.
"It's not our policy to put pressure, we want to talk about goodwill and fairness," he says.
And if that doesn't work?
"Well, then the lawyers will get more money and nobody wants that."
Tough talk over expired transfer agreement
`We're tired of being treated like poor relatives'
MICHAEL MAINVILLE
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
MOSCOW—Alexander Ovechkin, the Russian phenom selected as the first pick in this year's National Hockey League entry draft, has been wearing a Moscow Dynamo jersey since he was old enough to skate.
He joined Dynamo's hockey school at the age of 6 and has become its pride and joy — a potential superstar who this season had 13 goals and 23 points in 56 games skating with the Russian league club's top line.
"He is a typical example of how we prepare our players. He's a member of the Moscow Dynamo family," says Alexei Panfilov, the club's sports director. "We've been preparing him for most of his life to play for Dynamo. And now we're going to lose him."
But not without a fight. Fed up with losing top talents to the NHL for what they say is a pittance in compensation, hockey clubs here are getting tough.
"We're tired of being treated like poor relatives," says Vsevolod Kukushkin of the Russian Hockey Federation. "We want to be treated like equal partners, we want respect and a fair deal."
The number of Europeans playing in the NHL is at a record high, some 30 per cent of about 1,000 players this season. For the last three years, transfers between the NHL and European hockey clubs have been governed by an agreement with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).
Under the deal, which expired at the end of the recent world championship, NHL clubs provided the IIHF with about $10 million (all figures U.S.) a year to distribute to European clubs whose players had signed contracts in the NHL. European clubs would get about $220,000 for a first-round draft pick and about $140,000 for a player selected in the remaining rounds.
But Russian clubs are saying these figures amount to chump change.
"To prepare a player like Ovechkin, a top talent, takes years of effort," Kukushkin says. "The NHL should be paying $1 million for a player like Ovechkin. That's the market value."
The Dynamo club has gone even further, saying it would want $2.5 million to $3 million for Ovechkin, whose contract with the club doesn't expire until April 30, 2006.
Other national associations in the IIHF are looking for a gradual increase in payments from the NHL under the same terms as before. The Russians want more.
"Every association is interested in the next deal being better than the one that has expired. It's only the Russians who are fundamentally against the deal as it was," IIHF spokesman Szymon Szemberg says.
Russian clubs want NHL teams to either pony up significantly more money or to negotiate one-on-one for player transfers.
"At the moment, NHL clubs don't recognize our contracts and can take any player they want. How is that fair?" Kukushkin says.
The NHL says it's ready to discuss some increase in transfer payments, but won't consider club-to-club negotiations or signing a separate deal with the Russians.
"We see that we have an obligation to continue to feed the development of these leagues — they provide us with great talent," NHL vice-president Bill Daly says.
But having to negotiate individually for players would be a huge headache for NHL teams and Daly doubts Russian clubs would benefit. "It would be a big mistake for them because overall the level of compensation would be less than they're getting today."
Agents are beginning to play a much stronger role in Russia's increasingly competitive league and Daly says that with no transfer agreement, top Russian prospects would simply negotiate for shorter contracts or release clauses in order to get into the NHL.
He says this year's draft went ahead as planned inspite of the fact that no deal is in place. If there is no agreement by the start of the 2004-05 season — if there is a season considering the possibility of a lockout — individual NHL clubs will decide then what to do about player transfers, Daly says.
In that case, a team like the Washington Capitals, could simply sign Ovechkin without paying any compensation because Russian league contracts aren't legally binding outside the country.
Russian clubs aren't ruling out taking NHL teams to court if that happens. Kukushkin says that would be a last resort.
"It's not our policy to put pressure, we want to talk about goodwill and fairness," he says.
And if that doesn't work?
"Well, then the lawyers will get more money and nobody wants that."
