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NHL and Kontinental Hockey League transfer talks fall apart

NHL and Kontinental Hockey League transfer talks fall apart

The NHL and the KHL did not come to an agreement to try to create some sort of transfer deal between the two leagues.

This comes from Chris Johnston of Sportsnet who indicates players that want to move between leagues more freely will have to wait another year.

The leagues recently held discussions about expanding their transfer agreement to look more like those the NHL has with other European federations, but couldn’t reach a new deal. Instead, they’ve extended their pre-existing memorandum of understanding through June 2016. 

What this means, per Johnston, is that the NHL and the KHL will still respect one another’s contracts. If they had come to a deal, players could have left the KHL for the NHL for some sort of fee, like in Sweden and Finland.

In early June, both sides were apparently closing in on a deal. But unlike the negotiations in the Cuban Missile Cris … ok, that analogy was going to be way too far-fetched and confusing for non-history buffs.

Again from the story:

"Over the last few years a number of issues have arisen concerning relations between the KHL and NHL, and we have yet to find a compromise which is fully satisfactory for our league," KHL president Dmitry Chernyshenko said in a statement. "We will continue to work toward this goal and strive to reach a far better level of co-operation with our friends across the Atlantic." 

The KHL may or may not be in some sort of financial duress. Three KHL players were scooped up in Day 1 of unrestricted free agency, which may have signaled a move back to North America from Russia’s talent – which had gone the other way of late.

Also, 17 Russian born players were picked in the 2015 entry draft, the most since the Alex Ovechkin/Evgeni Malkin 2004 draft.

This is good and bad. It’s good in that we can continue to make Ilya Kovalchuk jokes. It’s also good that Alexander Radulov will continue to do really stupid stuff in a league that lets him run wild. This gives an extra layer of security if either ever wanted to return to the NHL.

It stinks for players under contract who want to leave the KHL for North America.

But it could lead to more sabre rattling and legal wrangling between both leagues, which always leads to wonderful off-ice entertainment.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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