KHL ruffles feathers as Nordic Trophy fails to capture imagination
The Gazprom-backed Kontinental Hockey League has reached a transfer deal with the NHL, but the long term effects of the predominantly Russian league are causing discomfort for Finnish clubs.
EGAN RICHARDSON
HELSINKI TIMES
THE START of the Finnish hockey season has been coloured by back room politicking in response to the convulsions the sport is going through as a result of the petrodollar boom currently occurring across the Eastern border. The vast wealth acquired by Russian oligarchs and the Russian state has found an outlet in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), a new trans-national competition that will encompass teams in Belarus, Latvia and Kazakhstan.
Part of the raison d’etre of the KHL is to acquire players from the North American NHL, offering them colossal salaries to relocate to places like Kazan and Yaroslavl. This has achieved some notable transfers, such as Czech legend Jaromir Jagr. He left the New York Rangers in order to captain his new side, Avangard Omsk Oblast. He will be paid $7m USD a year and pay a flat rate tax of just 13%, giving him one of the highest net incomes of any hockey player in the world.
Not all transfers have been so smooth. While Jagr was surplus to requirements at the Rangers, Nashville Predators were desperate to keep their right wing, Alexander Radulov. The player himself signed for Salavat Ylaev Ufa, a team based in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan who will compete in the Bobrov division of the KHL.
Transfer deal
This was announced on July 11, the day after a deal was struck between the NHL and IIHF whereby all contracts would be respected by clubs in all leagues, including the major European competitions like SM Liiga and Sweden’s Elitserien. Radulov and his new club maintain that their contract was signed before the NHL-IIHF deal was struck, and now the case will go to court or binding arbitration.
“We would like to create an environment where mutual respect of contracts is more than just a nice slogan,” Gazprom Vice president, IIHF board member and KHL boss Alexander Medvedev said in a phone interview with thn.com.
“I believe every objective analyst or supporter of hockey, regardless of nationality or location, should appreciate that we are doing everything possible to have a civilized, transparent and legally solid method of player transfers between the KHL and the NHL. Our friends will never forgive (the KHL and NHL) if we create an environment and all of hockey will suffer. We know people are watching us and waiting for a decision.”
Nordic Trophy
Other European leagues are the target audience of that Medvedev missive. The smaller leagues have felt uncomfortable with transfer arrangements for a long time, and a suitable resolution to the transfer problems is one way the KHL can gain appreciation among the leagues that might feel threatened by the trans-national nature of the KHL.
That has caused fretting among SM Liiga management, as they worry how their clubs will be able to increase revenues in the new era of conflict between the KHL and NHL – particularly when the bigger clubs are being wooed to join the KHL.
Enter the Nordic Trophy, a pre-season tournament that certain teams would like to become a great deal more. The competition involves Kärpät, Tappara, HIFK, TPS and Jokerit from Finland, competing against HV71, Färjestads BK, Linköpings HC, Frölunda HC and Djurgådens IF from Sweden.
Keskisuomalainen reported that the Nordic Trophy participants would like to make it a Nordic League, but the reaction of fans and media in both countries has made that a more distant prospect. Jokerit and Kärpät have been mentioned in the Russian media as potential KHL participants, but that is not a priority for either team while the Russian clubs are unknown and unattractive to Finnish fans. If and when that changes, top-level Finnish hockey could look very different indeed.
