As the NHL's pre-Christmas schedule wraps up tonight with 26 teams in action, Russia's Continental Hockey League (KHL) resumed play Monday after a 10-day international break that permitted some Canadians, including Avangard Omsk coach Wayne Fleming, to sneak home for a short holiday.
As with all start-ups, it has not exactly been smooth sailing for the KHL in its inaugural season. On Saturday, the league's board of directors met to ponder an idea that had been floated the week before – a 30 per-cent across-the-board contract rollback to cut costs for some of the most under-funded franchises.
Amid heavy opposition from the newly formed players' association (run by Andrei Kovalenko, a former NHL, nicknamed The Tank in his playing days), the proposal was put on the shelf at least for the duration of this season. KHL president Alexander Medvedev decided, according to sources, that trying to force a rollback would cause more headaches than it would solve problems.
That's probably wise, given that every contract would be theoretically breached by the proposal – and the last thing the KHL needs right now is to have its credibility put further at risk. A rollback is still under consideration for next year, although the directors were at pains to say it wouldn't affect star players, only the run-of-the-mill journeymen (the KHL has what is in effect a franchise player exemption to its salary cap, which permits them to attract the Jaromir Jagrs of the world).
The KHL salary cap will almost certainly be reduced next season; and Medvedev – a major emerging force in the hockey world - went to great lengths to warn teams that were in arrears in paying player salaries that those agreements needed to be honored. He went so far as to say the government might even intervene if promises weren't kept.
The plan is to stumble to the 56-game finish line with all 24 teams intact, but after that, all bets are off. Contraction could easily come to as many as four teams; and it wouldn't necessarily be offset by expansion to other areas of Europe, which is their long-range plan.
As tough as economic times are in North America as a result of the global financial crisis, it is far worse in some areas of Russia because of its heavy reliance on oil and mineral wealth. Meanwhile, player agents on this side of the Atlantic are monitoring developments closely, knowing that what looked like an appealing alternative for NHL players who'd run out of options last summer may not nearly be as attractive a destination next season.
