On Friday, August 11, the President of the Russian Hockey Federation Vladislav Tretyak promised to name the new head coach of the national team, who will prepare her for the Moscow World Cup 2007. In addition, the head of the FHR must approve the rules for the upcoming Super League championship. In a word, the fog will soon dissipate, and the situation in our hockey will more or less clear up. This has long been expected not only by direct participants in the hockey process, but also by its observers.
Indeed, Tretyak took a lot of time to get acquainted with the hockey economy of the country, which he received in possession in April. The season is already around the corner, but it is still technically unclear who will take the national team to the first stage of the Eurotour at the end of August and in what format the Russian championship will start in early September. At the same time, the head of the FHR managed to dissolve the Professional Hockey League, which was involved, and very successfully, in organizing the championship of the Super League, which caused alarm among club leaders. Many of them wondered why it was necessary to destroy a sufficiently effective system, by and large, not offering anything in return. The controversy was also caused by the Tretyak department’s proposals to introduce a tax on foreign players, including representatives of the so-called neighboring countries, to increase the application fee from clubs from 3 to 5 million rubles, to cancel the lease of players, and to reduce the number of participants in the playoffs from sixteen to eight, about the opening of the Super League elimination. With these reforms, which, however, have not yet been passed by law, Tretyak has made enemies, if not enemies, then certainly. For example, the master of the domestic coaching workshop, Vladimir Yurzinov, got into stiff opposition. But another sore point remained unresolved - about the contract with the National Hockey League.
Perhaps in vain the Tretyak in such a crucial moment as Russian hockey would have left vacation with all its headquarters, especially since the clubs had already begun preparations for the season and were leading it in complete fog. And on the other hand, maybe having a rest, he will be able to make the right decisions on a wide range of accumulated problems. This we, in fact, will find out on Friday, after the meeting of the Executive Committee of the FHR.
However, some clarity has already come. Tretyak said that he would not sign the existing agreement of the International Hockey Federation (IIHF) with the NHL, according to which Russia would be able to receive compensation in the amount of 200 thousand dollars for any player leaving overseas. In this matter, the president of the FHR supported the position prevailing in super league clubs. True, here he also found critics who believe that the illustrious goalkeeper threatened to disrupt the execution of the state order to win the home world championship. After all, as you know, the NHL threatened to prevent our stars playing overseas from participating in the 2007 world championship, as well as in subsequent major tournaments, if Russia did not enter the general agreement. By the way, critics were not at all bothered by the fact that the NHL leadership, in dialogue with the FHR, was using outright blackmail. You tell us, they say, Malkin is “cheap”, and for this we will let Malkin go to the World Cup. There is something derogatory in such a “dialogue”, as well as in those 200 thousand dollars that the NHL offers to pay for the best player in the age of the world, equating it with other, much less talented newcomers. And here Tretiak is right that he is not susceptible to blackmail, or, probably, to other methods of “rolling away” from the side of his overseas colleagues who stubbornly do not want to change their purely consumer attitude towards Russia to a partnership.
In addition, practice shows that the wedge did not converge in the NHL. Eugene Malkin, in any case, according to Victor Rashnikov, president of Metallurg Magnitogorsk, will not go to Pittsburgh this season. As well as his teammate Alexei Kaygorodov, whom Ottawa really counted on. Other potential Enhael players remained in the Super League - Alexey Morozov, Maxim Sushinsky, Sergey Zinoviev, Denis Kulyash. Ready to do this Nikolai Zherdev, Maxim Kondratyev, Konstantin Koltsov. Moreover, Pavel Vorobyov, Fedor Fedorov, Denis Grebeshkov, Evgeny Artyukhin, Timofey Shishkanov, Kazakhstan goalkeeper Vitaly Kolesnik, his Czech counterpart Martin Prusek, Finnish goalkeeper Mika Noronen, his compatriot, striker Sean Bergenheim arrived in Russia from the NHL -2006), Canadian forwards Zenon Konopka and Eric Shuinar ... As for the World Cup in Moscow, it is hard to imagine how, for example, the NHL will prohibit Ilya Kovalchuk and other stars from playing in it: will he impose a large fine? disqualifies? But it’s not profitable for the league to spread rot for players who bring her golden eggs. In addition, it smacks of a violation of human rights, which is highly revered in North America. Does the NHL have the right to prohibit an athlete from playing for his country? Now, however, speaking of the omnipotence of the overseas league, it is customary to remember the last world championship, where only one Enkhael player, Alexander Ovechkin, was part of the Russian team. But the fact is that of the hockey players with the so-called one-sided contracts, which cannot be obliged to play for the farm club, the ex-coach of the Russian national team Vladimir Krikunov basically wanted to see him only. There were several more candidates, but someone was hindered by injuries, and someone himself was not eager to go to Riga. Only those who were exiled to the lower North American leagues were banned. In general, the devil is not so terrible.
The issue with the head coach of the national team has already been practically resolved, although his name will be officially announced only on August 11. Specialists have no doubt that they will be Vyacheslav Bykov, formerly a famous striker, and now a mentor of CSKA. Despite the fact that the circle of applicants was initially quite wide, the FHR chose, in fact, between Bykov and coach of Kazan “Ak Bars” Zinetula Bilyaletdinov. But the latter put forward conditions (in particular, that at the stages of the Eurotour the team will be led by his assistants, and he will join the team immediately before the World Cup), which, apparently, did not suit the leadership of the federation. As a result, Bilyaletdinov recently announced that for him the topic of the national team is no longer relevant. Recall that Boris Mikhailov, Valery Belousov also appeared among the candidates, Vladimir Krikunov wanted to return. Why then the Bulls? Probably, the FHR decided to update our hockey in full. The new president, the new rules of the game, the new young coach, who, according to Tretyak, should find long-lost contact with the NHL stars. To this end, by the way, Sergey Nemchinov, who recently served at the New York Islanders, has already been practically brought into the headquarters of the national team. At the same time, it became known that the head coach of the national team will be allowed to work at the same time in the club, which many venerable specialists are against. So there is still possible debate, which, however, will not lead to a split. Despite certain doubts and discontent, the hockey community of the country as a whole still believes in the Tretyak.