Former player of the Russian national ice hockey team Alexei Kovalev in an interview with , he said that in 2004 many hockey players sought to enter Ak Bars not only for financial reasons, but that the salary allowed players to make major purchases.
Kovalev spoke for “AK Bars” in 2004-05 when the NHL was locked out. Overseas, the Russian has played for the New York, Pittsburgh, Montreal, Ottawa and Florida Rangers.
– I will ask about Ak Bars, who before this season assembled a stellar team, but failed the first half of the championship.
– Just like we did in 2004, when we played in Kazan during the lockdown. Specifically, we flew out in the first round of the playoffs. We had a good team, we could become champions. I don’t want to blame Zinetula Bilyaletdinov for anything. But when we talked, I asked myself plain and simple: why did they get so many stars in the line-up if they were not used to the maximum?
Bill then replied, “Well, now I’m going to start using all the NHL stars, and the rest will sit with me. So the lockout will end, and who will I stay with?
That is, Bilyaletdinov thought that at any moment we would break off and leave. And those who stay at Ak Bars will be cold and unprepared. We kept Plan B in mind the whole time. And NHL stars themselves felt they weren’t allowed to go full throttle.
I understand this is a difficult situation for any coach. And I don’t want to take the blame away from the hockey players that we then lost to Lokomotiv in the first round (1–3). And other teams were in the same situation. But this Ak Bars was a big irritant, and everyone in Super League wanted to show that they could play well against Lecavalier, Richards, Heatley, Kovachuk, Kovalev, Khabibulin, Kasparaitis… Every opponent’s motivation was crazy.
– Is it true that in Kazan they paid even more than under a contract in the NHL?
– I don’t think Ak Bars interrupted the NHL, but they paid decently for those moments. Just during this season there was a sharp increase in contracts, while a lot of money came to Russian hockey from sponsors.
But I will not say that at that time in Kazan they threw money on the table, if only Tampa Canadians came to them. I didn’t get a huge salary. Could earn more. But it was interesting for me to play in this Ak Bars. It was important to find a good job while the NHL players were on strike. And the Kazan club had excellent prospects.
But I don’t know the players who were then paid several million dollars at Ak Bars…
– Then there were no cards, and you received money in the accounting department?
– No, the money was transferred to each player’s bank account. I was not cached. Maybe some bonuses were given in cash. They were too. But the salary was transferred to the bank. I remember this, because with all this salary from Kazan I bought myself an apartment in Moscow.
– That is, the season in Ak Bars is an apartment in Moscow.
– Well yes.
A source:
Source : MatchTV
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