Penguins Negotiating With Malkin Despite RIHF’s Stance

Malkin Money: Penguins Negotiating With Star Despite RIHF Objections

The Penguins are opening contract negotiations with the agent for Russian C Evgeni Malkin despite the Russian Ice Hockey Federation’s (RIHF) “refusal to sign a deal that would allow its players to leave for the NHL,” and Malkin “should be in the lineup on opening night,” according to Karen Price of the Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW. The NHL gave the RIHF until Monday to sign a deal that was negotiated in June, and NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said that the league is “moving ahead without Russia on board with the other European countries that signed the transfer agreement last summer.” Daly said that the RIHF not signing the deal “does not necessarily mean that Russian players cannot come to the NHL.” Daly: “If the player can secure his own release, either pursuant to the terms of his existing Russian contract or pursuant to applicable Russian law, NHL clubs will be free to sign such player.” Price notes Malkin is under contract to his Russian team, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, through ’08, but a “provision in Russian labor law allows employees to leave their jobs whether a contract exists or not after giving two weeks’ written notice.”

DEAL OR NO DEAL? Price reports Malkin “is the primary reason why the Russians wouldn’t sign the deal.” The existing transfer agreement between the IIHF and the NHL calls for a fixed transfer fee of $200,000 for each player who leaves a European team for the NHL, but that figure was “not acceptable to the Russian Federation when it came to Malkin.” RIHF General Dir Sergey Arutyunyan through a translator said, “We deem that the payment for his transfer has to be more than $200,000. But (the) NHL doesn’t want to do that.” Arutyunyan added, “Russian clubs will have legal proceedings against NHL clubs in courts if NHL clubs sign contracts with Russian players who have valid contracts with Russian clubs.” Capitals LW Alexander Ovechkin last year was sued in U.S. District Court by his former team in Russia, Moscow Dynamo, but the judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying that the court did not have jurisdiction to enforce a Russian arbitration board’s ruling (Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW, 8/3). RIHF President Vladislav Tretiak “has pushed hard for his country to join” the agreement, but “many top Russian clubs want to negotiate their own deals directly” with NHL teams. IIHF President Rene Fasel “has warned Russia that if they continued the stand-off they would risk participation of their NHL players in world championship or Olympic competition” (REUTERS, 8/2).