Ovechkin Threatens To Stay In KHL

Alex Ovechkin has not been shy in voicing his concerns about the NHL labor negotiations. He was officially announced as a member of the KHL’s Dynamo Moscow today after practicing with the team and passing his physical. When speaking about his new contract (in the $5.7 million range, tax-free), he also told a Russian news agency that if player salaries are cut dramatically when the next CBA is signed, he may just continue to play in his home country: “If our contracts get slashed, I will have to think whether to return there or not. I won’t rule out staying in the KHL, even past this season.”

Alex the Gr8 is just one of many players to sign a contract to play overseas during the lockout, but the fact that the NHL could be permanently losing a player of his caliber will probably cause the league and it’s owners to lose more money than they would if they were to just agree to the NHLPA’s terms. As much as I would hate to see this actually happen, I think Ovechkin is playing his cards right. The league needs to be worried about losing big time players due to their insatiable greed.

Paging Sidney Crosby: Now it’s your turn to make a threat and get this thing resolved A.S.A.P. I’m still planning to be at Staples Center on Oct. 12th for the Kings/Rangers game. Don’t disappoint me!

Via NBCS

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While You're At It...

  • Ryan

    Great move by O-V to light a fire under the league’s ass and get something moving!

  • sportsbaron1

    Katey, I think you hit the nail squarely on the head on BOTH counts–namely that the cause of this stalemate is greed–more so on the owners’ side, I’d say. And the antidote for it, as you suggest, is mega-star players like Crosby and Ovechkin threatening to take their skill and drawing power elsewhere. As with work stoppages in other major sports, I refuse to understand why a group of centi-millionaires can’t manage to forge a compromise with a group of multi-millionaires. But rather than pinning blame on owners or players, I think the burden ultimately rests on the shoulders of the people going through the turnstiles to end this stupidity. But the fans don’t seem to understand their supremacy in this situation. Instead of teaching those arrogant bastard owners a lesson by staying away from games in droves after the strike is over, they pour into stadiums in record numbers to satisfy their fix, not realizing that they’re enablers in this scenario and they’re paving the way for the next interruption with their complicity…

    Clifford
    Santa Monica