The head coach SKA Romain Rotenberg In an interview with , he said that the club’s management intends to form a team ready to fight for the trophy, and if it is necessary to make trades to meet the salary cap, the St. Petersburgers are ready to take this step.
Earlier, the National Hockey League club Carolina terminated the contract with 32-year-old Russian forward Evgeny Kuznetsov. According to , Kuznetsov will sign a four-year contract with SKA.
— Will Kuznetsov really come to you? What’s the news?
— You are waiting for Evgeny to officially sign a contract in the KHL. There is no point in discussing it before that.
I know Zhenya very well. We have always been on very good terms. In 2017, he expressed his desire to play for SKA. That is why we bought the sports rights from Traktor. And we were always in touch, even when he was playing in America. We constantly communicated with him in different situations and were ready to help him.
Kuznetsov always flew to the Russian national team at the first call. We have a very warm friendly and working relationship with him. God willing, we will succeed. It would be very good for the KHL, and for our hockey in general, if such players returned to their homeland. Kuznetsov embodies the Soviet style of hockey. He skates very well, he has a good thinking about the game. He can become the best player in the world if he wants.
– Better than Connor McDavid?
– Definitely. He has a crazy motivation: to prove it to everyone, as he already did in the playoffs in 2018 with Washington. Then Zhenya became the top scorer of the competition and won the Stanley Cup.
— SKA must make trades to meet salary cap…
– We always have a plan. Of course, we will have to make some exchanges. But this is our job. We will do it if necessary. The main thing is to assemble the strongest possible team so that SKA wins the Gagarin Cup. We will do our best for this. If we have to make exchanges, we will do it. Because competition is the engine of progress, “Rotenberg told .
Last season, Kuznetsov scored 17 points (6 goals, 11 assists) in 43 games for Washington and added 13 points (6 goals, 7 assists) in 30 games for Carolina after the trade.
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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.
