From TSN/CP:
The Montreal Canadiens suspended Pavel Valentenko without pay on Friday after the prospect left the Hamilton Bulldogs of the American Hockey League to sign a three-year contract with Dynamo Moscow.
Valentenko was in the second year of a three-year, entry-level deal with the Canadiens organization, but opted to sign with Dynamo at the urging of his family, the player’s Ottawa-based agent Rolland Hedges said.
The Canadiens made no further comment, but an NHL spokesman says the league has raised the issue with the International Ice Hockey Federation. Valentenko will also need clearance from the Russian Hockey Federation before he can play for Dynamo in the Continental Hockey League, known as the KHL, according to Hedges.
The NHL is currently without an agreement with the Russian federation on player transfers and the two sides remain at odds over last summer’s signing of Nashville Predators’ forward Alexander Radulov to a three-year contract reportedly worth US$13 million with Russian club Salavat Ufa.
Hedges said Valentenko did not want to return to Russia, but he supports his entire family on his hockey earnings and was unable to do that on an AHL salary.
With his signing bonus plus a salary of $62,500, he was earning about $150,000 per season with Hamilton, before taxes. Without revealing a salary figure, Hedges said he would earn “substantially more” and with no taxes in Russia.
“His goal was to play in the NHL, but financially, playing in the AHL wasn’t cutting it,” said Hedges. “He was very upset at doing this.
“He came over here to make the NHL. He didn’t just run home. He had to do it. He knows he shouldn’t have done what he did contractually, but he had to. It’s not a Radulov situation.”
Hedges said Valentenko has been supporting his family since he was 15, and took a pay cut to pursue his NHL dream when he signed with Montreal before the 2007-08 season.
After playing all of last season and the first four games of this season with Hamilton, he was given permission to return to Russia to attend to a family matter. He said the signing was not premeditated.
“His intention was to go home to see his parents and see what he could do,” said Hedges. “When he got home, his father already had the deal done (with Dynamo).
“And if you saw the size of the deal, you’d see why.”
The six-foot-two, 220-pound Valentenko, a fifth round draft pick in 2006, is a physical but low-scoring defenceman despite his booming shot. In 61 games for Hamilton, he had one goal and 17 assists.
The friendly 21-year-old had learned to speak good English and seemed to be adjusting well to North America.
He had a mediocre camp and failed to crack a Canadiens lineup that already had seven defencemen under NHL contracts. But he was among a half-dozen defence prospects in the organization considered to have NHL potential.
Valentenko’s original Russian club Niznekamsk traded his rights to Dynamo after he left them to sign with Montreal.
The NHL and the Russians agreed to go to binding arbitration to settle the Radulov case, but the process is stalled because the Russians insist it be held in Russia while the NHL wants it to go to an international court in Switzerland.
The IIHF suspended Radulov from international play on July 18 and the Predators suspended him for the 2008-09 season on Sept 2.
“The only thing we’re against is that he has a contract and we want our players to abide by their contracts,” added Hedges. “But I understand why he did what he did.”
The Canadiens retain their NHL rights to the player should he ever ask to return.
RDS: Pavel Valentenko suspendu
Hurts the system to lose Valentenko. He was the only left handed defenseman showing much promise. McDonagh looks like he isn’t going to be near what Timmins suggested he would. Like Fischer from the previous draft, and to be blunt, Kristo from the last draft.
Wee Trevor is lucky some of these late round guys come through. Most of his top picks, aside from Carey Price, (where the team got lucky in the lottery), range from mediocre to poor.
Rob, I can't say that I agree with your assessment of McDonagh or Timmins. And it's somewhat unfair to suggest that luck is what brought Carey Price to Montreal. As you may recall, prior to the 2005 draft, the Montreal media had already ordered a Habs jersey with the name Brule on the back. Gainey & Timmins chose to bypass Gilbert Brule and choose Carey Price. It was obviously a very asute move but one that was vilified by the press. We know where Creme Brule is playing now and we also know who was right.
I think that Gainey and Timmins deserve a great deal of credit for making good decisions, and for not taking the easy path by bowing to the pressure of the biased Montreal media (as the coach has done on many occasions).
Rob, I should also say that I agree with you that the Canadiens system is hurt by the loss of Valentenko for the reasons that I have outlined in earlier comments.
I really hope that the Canadiens brass learn from this incident rather than just write off a guy who went AWOL. It is disappointing to know that Valentenko spent much of training camp alone. It was incumbent on the Canadiens coaching staff to recognize Valenenko’s isolation and to do something about his social integration. It is the role of the coaching staff to create a supportive organization; a team in its broadest sense, both on and off the ice. Losing Valentenko, in this manner, should be a wakeup call to the Canadiens.
Well, I don’t know that culture played a large role in Valentenko’s decision. By all accounts he adjusted well, and spoke good English. I think he is smarter by half than Andrei Kostitsyn. His agent pretty much summed it up…Pavel got a huge raise from his AHL salary to play in Russia. His talent is recognized over there, he was on the extended roster for the Russian senior national team at the age of 19. He may even earn more than he would in the NHL under his current contract.
As for McDonagh, things are not looking good. He didn’t have a great freshman season in the NCAA, and he isn’t having a great sophomore season.
I think that Timmins has HUGELY overrated the Minnesota high school players, from J.T. Wyman to David Fischer, to McDonagh, Kishel, and Kristo. Joe Stejskal may justify his draft position, but he was a fifth round pick so that doesn’t take much.
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