The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) discussed with the National Hockey League (NHL) the possibility of maintaining a memorandum of understanding, but the American League refused, a former hockey player and commentator told . Sergei Guimaev Jr. .
On Saturday, CSKA announced the signing of an agreement with Ivan Fedotov before the end of the 2024/25 season, the contract was registered by the KHL. The League said that based on information and documents received from the NHL, it assumes that Fedotov has not signed a valid agreement with the NHL club for the 2023/24 season. CSKA president Igor Esmantovich told that the KHL, before registering the deal, provided the NHL with a legally sound position regarding the situation with the player.
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told that the memorandum of understanding between the KHL and the NHL is not currently in effect.
– What is your opinion on the situation of Ivan Fedotov’s contract?
– Here the question is not so much in the contract with CSKA, but in the relationship between the KHL and the NHL. As far as I know, Fedotov is not against returning to CSKA. What matters is how this Fedotov contract will affect the KHL. If we assess the risks, what will the KHL lose? Overall, nothing, we had such a situation when Radulov came back from the NHL. Then it didn’t affect our league in any way.
In this situation, there is no need to panic. I know the KHL tried to negotiate legally with the NHL. There were talks about keeping the memorandum, but the American League was walking away from the deal. We saw that Kolosov’s signing from Philadelphia happened on the first day after Fedotov’s contract was registered. They went there deliberately.
The main question is how to keep KHL players under contract so they don’t go to the NHL. It is clear that the stars who want to leave anyway, we will not be able to keep them in the league, and the memorandum plays no role here. The key is to keep young hockey players and mid-level players trying their hand at the AHL who often don’t stay in America, Gimaev told .
Source : MatchTV
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