#khl players

[ravenpawraas]

I absolutely don't give a fuck about the Anthony DeAngelo assistant hat trick on SKA-Severstal match right know.

He is absolutely unpleasant to me and to many normal and clever fans here, he's disgusting person. My friend from St. Petersburg and a SKA fan has been indignant about this for many days.

Roman Rotenberg picks up absolutely everything from North America that glitters, apparently completely ignoring the reputation of the players. Anthony will cause more trouble in this team, I have no doubt!

[pikilos]

You can rewatch the NHL vs KHL all star game here!

[thedissociatives]

[alexavictoriano999]

𝗡𝗜𝗖𝗢𝗟𝗔𝗦 𝗣𝗘𝗧𝗔𝗡 (𝗡𝗜𝗖) / НИКОЛАС ПЕТАН №𝟳

𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗗 / НАПАДАЮЩИЙ

𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠: 𝗔𝗞 𝗕𝗔𝗥𝗦 𝗞𝗔𝗭𝗔𝗡 / АК БАРС КАЗАНЬ

𝙳𝙰𝚃𝙴 𝙾𝙵 𝙱𝙸𝚁𝚃𝙷: 𝙼𝙰𝚁𝙲𝙷 𝟸𝟸, 𝟷𝟿𝟿𝟻 (𝟸𝟿 𝚈.𝙾.) 𝙽𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽 : 𝙲𝙰𝙽𝙰𝙳𝙰 / 𝙸𝚃𝙰𝙻𝚈 𝙷𝙴𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃 - 𝟷𝟽𝟻 / 𝚆𝙴𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃 - 𝟾𝟶

[daria--cerberus]

so I returned to tumblr to make a hockey post

my photos from august: Traktor Chelyabinsk - ice practice

[hockeymarriage]

thinking about how Geno came from a steel town designed to be a social realist utopia inspired by Pittsburg that then became one of the most polluted cities in the world; how it was a closed city; how he grew up in peristroika when the Magnitogorsk hospital declared only 28% of infants were born healthy there and of all children only 1% were healthy; how his options were to work in the same place as his father and make pennies or play hockey and be good, which he was, good enough to sideline his education to focus on the sport, good enough to pay for his parents house before he was 19, good enough to be drafted #2 overall to the NHL.

and if he hadn't left, because his hometown team came to his house and coerced him into a contract after hours and hours of pressure, if he hadn't fled from his team in Europe with an emergency passport visa from the embassy, well—he might still be in the KHL. maybe he would still play for the city he donates to and built a silly prison themed restaurant in. maybe in 2010 the Russian team would have still lost embarrassingly in Vancouver, completely blindsiding everyone; but if they won then Russia would have continued its plan to dope Russian Hockey players (instead of refocusing their organized doping campaign to biathlon) and either Geno would be beloved and good enough to be saved when his positive doping tests came through, or he would have been one of the many athletes sacrificed to show that the Russian doping authority was doing it's job. his athletic career might have been ruined, or maybe hockey still would have dodged most of the scandal and he would have just carried the shame of losing in Sochi. regardless, he would never play in the Olympics again.

he wouldn't be completely challenged in the KHL, and maybe he would have still thrived. it's not like America is anywhere near perfect or there are no good lives to be lived in Russia, especially with some money. but he was exceptionally brave as a young man and came to a country where he didn't speak the language and the culture was quite different, and now he can support his family and has three cups and a son who is healthy and can do whatever he wants with his life. there was so much that he overcame, even after coming to America—the Olympics defeats, the Lokomotiv plane crash, his own injuries. I can only imagine what would have happened if he stayed.

[ravenpawraas]

No comments.........

I have a lot to say about this match, but now I'm just exhausted and very upset going home. Not even because of the score of 0:5...

[pikilos]

I love listening to him speak Russian :)

Evgeni Malkin

[puckpocketed]

ok the stick story is this

according to The Hockey Media, who as we know do not actually follow any teams closely so know NOTHING, ovechkin was finally hit by father time. he's finally slowing down. he's a shell of his old self. he has old man syndrome. blah blah blah

as a caps fan, i know that this is false, because our russian machine never break. he's a freak. who btw had like 13 goals disallowed or something crazy like that in the first half of last season but i digress

gee i wonder why ovechkin's goals went down? is it because his longtime center and future hall of famer nicklas backstrom retired in all but name? is it because our other top 6 center in evgeny kuznetsov had by far the worst season of his career (from point a game to not even half a point a game) and then went into the player's assistance program before being traded to the canes and then bolting for the KHL?

actually, as it turns out: no.

i mean probably those were factors, but there was another factor. a factor that many caps fans are very aware of but almost no one reported on for some reason (probably because they were too busy writing about how SiDneY CrOsBy was having SuCh an AmaZiNg season for a 36 year old despite ovechkin literally having just as a good a season the year prior at the *checks notes* age of 36. also this is a reminder that one of those two actually led their team to a playoff berth and it wasn't crosby)

ovechkin is, among other things, an elite shooter. like many elite shooters, he is EXTREMELY picky about his sticks. he has been using the same CCM model for the last 7 seasons...and prior to this season they discontinued it.

the first half of the season (roughly), ovi was constantly trying out new sticks from CCM, from Bauer, whoever. he tried quite a few different sticks. results: 8 goals in 43 games.

then, ovechkin found an independent supplier. apparently (i can't remember where this info came out, maybe 32 thoughts?), these guys have an "ovi pro curve" model based on his old stick with CCM and he bought it and tried it out. curve was identical, and it felt right to him. started using those. results: 23 goals in 36 games.

am i saying that he is going to continue on that pace this coming season? probably not. do i think that the rumors of his demise as a goal scorer are greatly exaggerated and almost surely mistaken? yes. am i optimistic that with some stability in our center depth and stability in stick choice, ovechkin will have a 40 goal season again and possibly break wayne gretzky's all time goals record? YES.

what this means for PLD our beloved failhorse wife: he's not getting some washed up old man former great on his wing. he's getting the greatest fucking goal scorer in the history of the sport. and i, for one, am excited to see what they can do together.

link i thought about this all morning during baking and while i was out!! thank you for the stick explanation and all the sources i LOVE citations i am eating them up like theyre cakes at teatime....! more under the cut but heres what i was thinking about when i read this:

thinking about how,, particular some players get about their equipment, how superstitious, it's crazy to me that a manufacturer can just do all that. if it were me and MYE special stick got discontinued id be suing for damages

i was super interested in what actually changed in the second half of the season because i saw ovechkin was back to scoring basically at-will again, so really thank you for explaining.. the bond between a hockey and their stick is so beaugtiful <3

cr-sby is my babygirl-in-law and i fear i will always be fond of him because of this, so i shall tread carefully here (pens friends look away) it DOES suck that they're not recognising your old man for his achievements while that old man gets hyped. is it like, weird anti-russian sentiment? or a more general anti-caps bias? every team fan space i dip into feels unfairly maligned one way or another - which, yeah! clenching my fist of rage.......

you spin such a tale and im VERY excited to see how next szn shakes out in light of all this and also . grabbing dubois by the scruff of his neck like i will stan either way but PLEASE dont embarrass me in front of my cool new friends kjlasdklasdkl....

thank you so much for stopping by and for the warmest welcome ever <3

[jiminy-crickets]

i wanna, i wanna so fucking bad.

"former florida panther nic—" we don't claim him actually. we can ignore him on the ice actually. does anyone else want to ignore him on the ice. please.

[alchemistc]

okay….. can I ask about Buck in the hockey au?

Buck was a middling college player who got drafted in the third round after his team missed the Frozen Four, and he kind of labored in obscurity for a few years in the AHL before his current team picked him up trying to unload cap space to buy out a problem players contract.

Buck plays four regular season games with his new team before he gets sent back down. The company line is that he's just Not Ready but in actuality he's been hooking up with girls in visitor facilities and once in the team bus. His coach (the coach is Bobby I'm just still working out the details) tells him he sees a lot of potential in Buck, and he could make it if he could just find a way to get his head on straight.

Buck gets his head on straight. He kills it with the affiliate team, runs a point streak through twenty-three games as a defenseman, quarterbacks the power play to the point that fans of the NHL team are up in arms that he hasn't been called up.

They're playing with numbers, trying to give Buck as much ice time as possible while they lose the weight of one of their underperforming D-Men - the usual contract juggling. Then they call him up. He has a few good games, scores a few goals, has a wicked wrister from the blue line. He also scores an own goal against Chim his fourth game up and keeps taking stupid penalties. It's 2-4 penalty minutes a game for too many men or delay of game because he keeps getting too overexcited and slinging the puck over the glass instead of along the boards.

Abby works for TNT, and Buck catches her eye while she's between the pipes for a national broadcast game. She's got enough pull to get his number and they start up a phone based relationship.

Buck's team makes playoffs his first year, and gets slaughtered in the first round. Abby's mom dies and she takes a break from sports casting and Buck, not that she really lets him know that.

During the off-season Buck's team trades for a defenseman who's been in the KHL for a few years. His name is Eddie Diaz.

Buck hates him for about half a day. He feels like he's being replaced. He's worked so fucking hard to make it and now there's this guy who just gets a spot right away?

(They're best buds by the end of the week, and by the time the regular season starts they're playing 25 minutes a night as the top D-Pair)

Buck's career comes to a screeching halt in the second round of the playoffs that year when he gets tripped on a breakaway and slides awkwardly into the boards.

(No one makes the connection at the time, but the player who trips him is the same one one of their old wingers, Deluca, saved from the bottom of a dogpile years ago when a skate got way too close to his neck)

The injury isn't an easy one. There's no quick recovery time. Buck is just sort of stuck in limbo for a while. And then when he's cleared to return they find out there were complications. Coach Bobby benches Buck.

And Buck has been nothing but hockey for most of his life. It was the only way to get his parents to pay attention to him. The only outlet for all his anger. And he's good at it. He's the best. He could be the best, anyway.

Buck takes to twitter during his 'recovery' time. At first he's just posting stupid shit, but then people start paying attention to him. The PR dept does Not Like the way Buck calls out bullshit and trolls on Twitter. The GM gets involved, things blow up. Buck is reluctantly allowed back at practices and quickly jumps into game readiness.

And it's clear he's come back better.

The team toils for years in first and second round exits, and some of their stars are coming close to contract years, and they just can't break out. Buck places third for the Norris a few times, and he and Eddie are often talked about as one of the best Defensive pairings in the league, but their team is fast and light and they get beat to shit every time playoffs roll around. Eddie's feisty, he'll talk shit until the opposing bench is FUMING, he'll get scrappy along the boards, he'll duke it out when necessary, but he usually has to keep a lid on that because he can't let Buck down by getting injured.

At the end of year six for Buck, after a heartbreaking out, Buck's end of year presser goes viral when he talks about how he's been in the league for six years and hasn't won shit.

The fanbase panics because he's in his second to last contract year. If they can't contend, they're convinced he's gonna want out before the All-Star break. (None of them are aware that Buck would rather re-break his leg than leave this team he considers family, and his agent would like to keep it that way)

The team has a banner fucking year. They've got record game winning streaks and record point streaks and their aging goalie has never played better. He has four shutouts in the first half of the season. And Buck was never planning to leave so no one really broaches the contract thing. They'll figure it out in the off-season. Buck's got games to win.

With the trade deadline looming and Buck's team looking like a shoe-in for top of their conference, the front office makes a... strange move early in. They trade for Tommy Kinard. He's a bruiser, real old school type, skates like he's got bricks attached to his ankles but will knock a motherfucker down for looking sideways at his guys. He hasn't announced he's retiring at the end of the season, but he's planning to hang it up either way.

The team is hesitant about that, at first, once they know. He and Chim played together for a few years, and Chim welcomes him to the team by filling his car with golf balls. Pointed, maybe, but Tommy laughs it off, and retaliates, and the team starts to grow fond of him. BUCK starts to grow fond of him. Buck has a Cup run to worry about but Tommy is there, playing five minutes a night and knocking dudes on their ass that would normally be going for Buck and Eddie so consistently that Buck and Eddie feel a little invincible. People are second guessing whether or not they want to risk incurring the wrath of Kinard for a meaningless late March game.

And that is where I leave this because I'm actually seriously considering writing this fic now and that's about where I'd start it.

[stereax]

Wait, can fedetov play for the flyers for the remainder of the season and in playoffs?

Yep, he can! He was signed to an NHL ELC a few years back (summer 2022) with the intention of going to the NHL after his KHL season ended. The Russian government, however, arrested him on charges of "evading the draft" and sent him on a wonderful one-year "vacation" to an Arctic Circle Russian Navy post. When he returned from his vacation, he re-signed with his KHL club, CSKA Moscow. The IIHF said that, because Fedotov had an NHL ELC, the KHL contract was illegal. The KHL basically flipped the IIHF off and played Fedotov anyway despite being fined for it.

At this point, it seemed that Fedotov would be stuck in Russia forever. Thus, the NHL, from what I understand, quietly suspended Fedotov's contract, as Fedotov was categorically unable to play for the Flyers. What this essentially did was create a sort of "ELC slide" proxy - if Fedotov were to ever come to play in the NHL, the contract would be unsuspended then and he could play. This also allowed the Flyers to retain his rights. Clubs who draft Russian players technically have unexpiring rights to sign them to their ELC, a by-rule in place because the NHL and KHL do not have an official transfer agreement. Clearly, the Flyers should not be penalized (by losing Fedotov's rights) for signing a player who was trapped in Russia. Plus, as the contract was suspended, the Flyers would not have to pay it. Allowing them not to pay makes sense, given they do not control the player at any level (NHL, AHL, ECHL) and did not loan him themselves.

So now that Fedotov was basically hostage-released to Philly (CSKA "abruptly terminated" his contract and Fedotov hauled ass to Pennsylvania), the NHL has quietly lifted their quiet suspension of his contract. As he was a contracted player to the Flyers at the time of the trade deadline, albeit suspended, he is eligible to play in the playoffs. By virtue of having an NHL contract with the Flyers, he can also play out the rest of the season with them.

Note - there are cases, like Ottawa with Scott Gomez, where a free agent is signed after the trade deadline and is thus ineligible for the playoffs but can still play in the regular season. This does not apply to Fedotov, as he was signed far before the trade deadline. It's only that his contract came into effect afterwards because he was able to come to the United States.

[strawberryblondebutch]

One thing I also want to bring up as training camps open next month and contracts are ironed out:

Generally speaking, the reason that you see European and Asian players in any pro sports league go to America but less the other way around? Money. The level of play is the same, but North American athlete salaries are significantly higher.

In 2022, the highest-paid player in the KHL was Maxim Shalunov, who made 90 million rubles ($1.5 million USD). The highest paid player in the NHL that year was Connor McDavid, who made $12.5 million USD.

Last year, Yoshinobu Yamamoto set a franchise record with the Orix Buffaloes of NPB when he signed a one-year contract for 650 million yen, which equated to about $4.9 million USD. This year with the Los Angeles Dodgers of MLB, he's making $9.1 million, and he'll jump to over $30 million a year by 2027 with how his salary is structured.

While these pay differences are cut and dry in baseball and men's hockey, no professional women's hockey league, to my knowledge, publicly reveals player salaries. We know the salary band that PWHL players make from the CBA ($35k to $80k), which is better than the SDHL and the ZhHL, where it's unclear who's getting paid at all.

If, when you factor in room and board stipends, the take-home pay works out to a roughly equivalent number, we probably see some European talent head to another league, while American and Canadian players will want to stay in the PWHL. Money is a great motivator, but when all things are equal, a lot of players who go abroad have a hard time. The time zone difference between you and your family/friends makes it hard to keep up with them, and it's not guaranteed that you know the language.

One thing I don't think we see a lot of in pro women's hockey are players who go abroad (in either direction) because they couldn't get a local contract. Each league has a finite number of roster spots, with only a few open to free agent signings. Most of the North American players who go abroad do so to fill in a minor role for a team that needs a couple more people to round things out -- David Hale was essentially the last reliever for the Hanwha Eagles in 2018 because they needed one more guy and he was a warm body. There just aren't enough roster spots in the women's game for teams to take a flier on some girl whose name they recognize from somewhere.

[sethjarvy]

"but he's not gonna play with the flyers until 2026!!"

1. that's 3 more years of full on tank

2. that means stacking up with high draft picks

3. he's gonna join this team when the rebuild is almost done

4. who the fuck cares we got a generational talent who was the only worthy competitor to connor fucking bedard

thinking about michkov and how he fits perfectly into the flyers rebuild timeline

[pierrelucdisaster]

That NHL vs. KHL players game is gonna fucking rule omg!

[hockeymarriage]

(hi its keller-clayton) ok for the AU ask game:

AU where sid went to play in the KHL as a teenager instead of rimouski

oh wow! back when they were such babies... their round baby faces!!!!!!

1) I think Sid goes to the KHL for one year before his draft bc he's a big fan of Russian skating and wants to experience a different style of play and an adults league before the NHL draft. also maybe some personal reasons that make him want to escape North America for a bit. he's 17 and Zhenya is 18 and was just drafted by the Penguins :)

2) Sid takes a few months intensive of Russian and also billets with Magnitogorsk's Canadian coach, so he's not entirely helpless when he gets there. but there's still a huge language and cultural barrier. Sid is NOT prepared for the realities of living in Magnitogorsk and how the team basically does everything together. Russians are different in a way he can't articulate but he's just here to focus on hockey, not make friends.

3) HOWEVER Sid and Zhenya are drawn together immediately even though they don't share much language, just like in canon. I think their personalities just click together. they meet and shake hands and Sid says something in halting Russian about Evgeni's skating and then they're just beaming at each other and everyone is like ???? what is going on??? instant chemistry.

4) they become fast friends. they learn each other's language together. Sid becomes "Sidnya" and Sidnyushka". Malkin becomes Evgeni becomes Zhenya becomes Zhenyushka. they tear it up on the ice. Zhenya is fiercely protective of Sid when others on the team are jealous and other players are rough and rude (though it's a less physical game in Russia). Zhenya invites Sid to his house to hang out and eat dinner with his family.

5) they're so absorbed in this exciting best friendship that they don't quite realize that they are also horny for each other. but maybe there's a shared bottle of vodka in a shared room on the road and they share fumbling first-times 🥺

6) best part about this is that Sid leaves for the NHL draft and knows they might never play again. he gets drafted by the Penguins but Zhenya is stuck in Russia Sid's rookie year and Sid misses him so much!!!! it's a hard year and he's not even sure when Zhenya will be able to leave his home club ((((( very first-love teenage tragedy with the biggest emotions.