TSN:
The Moscow Dynamo website reports that Montreal Canadiens blueline prospect Pavel Valentenko has signed a three-year deal with the KHL club.
The news comes just after Valentenko’s AHL team – the Hamilton Bulldogs – gave the 21-year-old an indefinite leave to attend to family matters back in Russia. A Canadiens spokesman said the team was unaware of the signing.
”We didn’t have a place for him here in the short term, but in the long term, it was different,” coach Guy Carbonneau told The Canadian Press in Minnesota, where the Canadiens were to play the Wild on Thursday night.
”He was in the mix with the other young defencemen in the organization like Ryan McDonough, Yannick Weber, P.K. Subban, David Fischer, Mathieu Carle and Alexei Yemelin.”
Valentenko was Montreal’s fifth pick (139th overall) in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. The 6-2, 214-pound blueliner played 61 games with the Bulldogs over the last two seasons, tallying 18 points and 58 penalty minutes.
It marks the second time that a player in the Canadiens’ system has returned to Russia. The club lost forward Alexander Perezhogin to Ufa Salavat two summers ago.
RDS: Valentenko aurait signé à Moscou
Habster:
If this report is true, then the Canadiens have lost a good prospect and probably will have a harder time convincing players like Maxim Trunev and Alexei Emelin to leave the KHL (you can be sure that Valentenko will give his opinion to both players when they meet in the KHL).
Granted, the KHL is not NHL caliber hockey but the money a young player can make is roughly two or three times more than they would receive with an NHL entry level contract.
I guess Pavel Valentenko was discouraged by his slow progress within the Canadiens system and was getting home sick. By all accounts, he was happy to be getting the opportunity to play in North America and had a solid AHL rookie season with the Bulldogs last year.
Let’s hope the report is false and/or he hasn’t closed the door on the NHL after the three years are done. I’m not totally sure if he remains the property of the Canadiens after the three year contract has expired (I believe he remains property of the Canadiens similar to the Perezhogin situation), I’ll have to do some further researching to find out!!! I also wonder if Valentenko’s NHL entry level contract is part of the gentlemen’s agreement between the NHL and KHL, whereupon each league respects the other’s contracts.
With all that being said, I hope young Mr. Valentenko understands the repercussions of his actions on his potential career within the Canadiens organization. His NHL window of opportunity within the Canadiens organization will close even tighter with this decision as there are tons of talented, young defensemen in the Habs system who will surely move up the depth chart during Valentenko’s three year KHL contract. Here’s hoping Bob Gainey and Pavel’s agent can make him understand the end results of his actions.