"Russian" to the NHL?
Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Posted by Kerrzy

The Pittsburgh Penguins need help up front. They’ve been a team on the verge for a few years now, but they’ve never been more than that. It looks like they’ve got a new owner, Sid the kid had a huge rookie season, they’ve re-signed Marc-Andre Fleury, but there’s a piece of the puzzle still missing. His name is Evgeni Malkin and he’s stuck in Russia. READ MORE...

Since Russia wouldn’t sign the transfer agreement with the IIHF, the Penguins are in a tough spot – the Russians want to be able to negotiate transfer fees based on the talents of the players, instead of a flat fee of $200,000. In the case of Malkin, there is a lot of talent, that’s just non-negotiable.

Just last year Dave King, Malkin’s coach at Metallurg Magnitogorsk, called young Evgeni the best player in the world outside of the NHL, and King knows his hockey.

A week ago, word came out that Malkin’s agent Don Meehan was going to use the Russian labour laws to “free” his boy from a contract that runs to 2008 by having him put in two weeks notice, and then just leaving.

I was looking forward to seeing the storm that would likely be caused when he eventually walked, but it looks as though there has been another new development instead.

Without his agent around, it seems Malkin went in and re-negotiated his contract down to a one-year deal, giving him free agent status in ’07…without his agent...whichever one(s) he’s going with this week.

Half of the stories I’ve seen name Don Meehan as Malkin’s agent, while the other half name JP Barry and Pat Brisson – it looks like he’s as uncertain about agents as he is about teams, firing JP and Pat, hiring Meehan and then rehiring JP and Patty B all within a span of a few weeks.

…anyways, a day or two after MM posted a story about Malkin’s new contract on their team website, Barry and Brisson came out and said Malkin told them he wants to play for Pittsburgh this year.

Will we see Evgeni and Sidney playing on the same team anytime soon? Not if the Russians have their way. Maybe Malkin can get Crosby dual-citizenship.

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Jim Kerr