And boy did TSN comply as their headline was indeed "Cold War Averted" for their story regarding the new transfer agreement between the NHL and Russia's new Continental Hockey League.

I'm not sure what the details of the transfer agreement are, but the general idea is that no player who is still under contract in the NHL may be approached by the Continental Hockey League and offered a contract. I'm assuming the same is also true the other way around, as Bill Daly has stated that "everybody will respect everybody's contracts". Meaning, approaching Evgeni Malkin with a trillion dollars even though he has a year left on his contract with the Penguins? Bad. Giving an unrestricted free agent a contract? Perfectly okay, and that makes perfect sense to me. The article doesn't state whether or not a compensation fee would be required but giving the figures the CHL (KHL?) is handing out, it doesn't seem like money is an issue for them.

As for a transfer agreement between the other European leagues, there will be a meeting in Zurich in September to negotiate a new deal. Right now the countries in question are Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Slovakia and Switzerland who all want to see an increase of the $200,000 US compensation fee.

I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed that this may mean an end to potential Mission Impossible-like stunts that Malkin pulled a couple of years ago to come to Pittsburgh.

In Other News...
- I get the feeling Dany Heatley had very little to do with the cover art of his book.

- You know, I understand that there were some problems with the attitude and work ethic in the dressing room last year but if I have to hear the word "character" again, I am going to kick somebody in the box. Can we move onto another talking point now? Like how we we should be looking for secondary scoring and a puck-moving d-man?

- An oldie but a goodie, Vote for Lubo!

Labels: dany heatley, hilarity, iihf, miscellaneous, nhl vs. russia, russian league