Excerpt from the Globesports.com article by Eric Duhatschek concerning the financial problems awaiting the KHL for next season. This could be great news for NHL teams trying to convince or keep Russian players in North America (ie- Pavel Valentenko and/or Alex Emelin):
As the NHL’s pre-Christmas schedule wraps up tonight with 26 teams in action, Russia’s Continental Hockey League (KHL) resumed play Monday after a 10-day international break that permitted some Canadians, including Avangard Omsk coach Wayne Fleming, to sneak home for a short holiday.
As with all start-ups, it has not exactly been smooth sailing for the KHL in its inaugural season. On Saturday, the league’s board of directors met to ponder an idea that had been floated the week before – a 30 per-cent across-the-board contract rollback to cut costs for some of the most under-funded franchises.
Amid heavy opposition from the newly formed players’ association (run by Andrei Kovalenko, a former NHL, nicknamed The Tank in his playing days), the proposal was put on the shelf at least for the duration of this season. KHL president Alexander Medvedev decided, according to sources, that trying to force a rollback would cause more headaches than it would solve problems.