We would love to thank Ruslan for his help, and hopefully we will be able to get more contributions from him, enjoy folks ! 1 - Alot is made on the lack of a transfer agreement, this will be a second year since the expiry of the agreement with the IIHF, what do you think are the sticking points which neither party can agree on ?
What the Russian clubs are saying is that the players from Russia should be acquired only as free agents otherwise it is impossible to build teams around their star players. Now if NHL club wants a certain player who is signed with a Russian club, then these clubs should negotiate between them and not according to some organisation, which really should not even be handling hockey transfers.
NHL of course will not accept this for a reason that it will destroy their principle of farm system, which includes not only their North American affiliates but also the countries who are part of IIHF agreement.
2 - Recently players like Alexei Morozov and Alexander Perezhogin have decided to remain in Russia for tangible sums of money instead of returning to the NHL, is this the start of a wave of players who will decide to stay in Russia, do you think it will affect the way GM's in the NHL view Russian prospects ?
I do not see it as a wave, Perezhogin felt that he is underappreciated and therefore will be underpaid so he decided to make a change. Morozov is a different case - he is just a superb player for big European ice and is treated like a superstar in Russia. He just decided that he does not want to change what is not broken. To summarize it all NHL GM's will draft less and less Russians simply because nobody wants extra headache. On the other hand that is exacty what Russian clubs want to achieve - the least amount of Russian born players to be drafted by NHL clubs.
3 - the Montreal Canadiens have prospects Pavel Valetenko and Alexei Emelin as well as Konstantin Korneev playing at the Elite level in Russia, what do these players bring to their teams ?
I can only comment on Emelin - he is going to be one of the best Russian defensemen for the next decade. He is still learning the game but his great personality and love for physical play will reward him and his clubs. He does sometimes takes stupid penalties but he will learn in that department too.
4 - Can any of these players make the kind of jump and potentially get to a level where a player like Andrei Markov is?
Well, Emelin should become a regular on Russian national team and that is already high level. Of course Emelin and Markov are different players and have different strengths, Emelin is more physical while Markov is terrific on powerplays. For me there is no doubth that Emelin can become an elite player of Markov's caliber one day.
5 - Are there any underrated players in the Russian Elite League this year with a potentiel equivalent to what we've seen from Malkin and Ovechkin?
I do not see any for now. Ovechkin and Malkin are once in a decade type of players and Russia was really lucky with these two.
6 - What can you tell us about this year's top rated player : Cherepanov
I am still holding my judgement on Cherepanov - so far he is overrated. His Russian league numbers are great but in my observation he usually does not play well in important games, that could suggest that he is not of the same breed as Malkin and Ovechkin.
7. do you think the comparisons to Pavel Bure are justified ?
Not to me yet. Of course he is very young and has a lot of time to improve but I do not think he can be compared to Bure. I hope I am wrong.
