Famous agent Alexei Dementiev believes that the management of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) should not change the limits imposed on foreign players, but the league should pay attention to the development of young Russian players.
On Wednesday, the Russian Hockey Federation (RHF) announced that it would consider reducing the limit on the number of foreign players to five for the 2024/25 season. Starting from the 2023/24 season, Russian teams in the Fonbet KHL Championship cannot include more than three foreigners in the application for matches. The KHL has contacted the Russian Sports Ministry with a proposal to increase the limit on foreign athletes. The FHR coaches council unanimously opposed this.
“I think now we need to focus on completely different things, and not on the limits. With such a limit, the resource will be replenished at the expense of average foreign players instead of developing their young hockey players. To give young players conditions, good salaries, uniforms, clubs, you have to spend money on that. Overpaying foreigners is the easiest thing you can do.
— Don’t you think that after the introduction of the new limit, there will be a massive exodus of young people to North America?
“I think there is such a chance.” We just started getting young players in every team, they started paying attention to them, giving them a chance. Look how many young people are playing in Nizhny Novgorod, Cherepovets, Yaroslavl, Magnitogorsk. Why replace our talents with mediocre players who have no chance of becoming important players in world hockey? This is what bothers me the most,” Dementyev told .
Watch live broadcasts of the Fonbet KHL Championship playoff matches on the Match Group channels, matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru sites.
Source : MatchTV
I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
