So the NHL is "negotiating"* with Alexander Medvedev's Continental Hockey League in wake of the (genuine?) rumours that Evgeni Malkin will be "poached" by the new Russian setup.

Is this upstart going to provide the European rival to the NHL that many would like? Or is it merely a cunning ploy by Malkin's agent? Or a money-laundering scheme for Russian billionaires? Or something else entirely.

* scare quotes denote terms used by G&M.

The answer to each of the questions in your second paragraph is yes.

It seems to me the potential for Bettman and his buddies to turn this pear shaped quickly is gargantuan. At a guess they're going to treat the CHL as if it were the WHA, which it absolutely isn't. If new league does come to pass, and they get it wrong, then they can kiss their last players' contract goodbye, and that's just for openers. Interesting times.

Completely agree.

I think this has a real chance to be one of the most fascinating "sports business" stories of the next several years, with potential ramifications well outside the often insular world of ice hockey.

In fact, Lymond just mentioned it on the Spain/Russia thread.

What kinds of ramifications do you think there will be outside hockey, Urs?

I've always been under the impression that inter-sport interactions are always lower than one would expect.

"Or is it merely a cunning ploy by Malkin's agent? Or a money-laundering scheme for Russian billionaires?"

Insofar as it's either of those, I can't see how this could be something that anyone would wish for.

You're right of course. The title was a play on the yearnings, expressed several times in the past, of European Hockey fans here for a larger professional league. One that would both be competitive with the NHL and keep local players at home.

Jagr signs with Avangard Omsk

My Russian is shite, but it seems to be confirmed on the team website.

That is one shit crest.

So - does this mean the NHL 'salary cap' for players may end up getting ...errr... 'looked at' or something?

The implication is that a cap-less Russian league could poach all the best players, similar to what happened during the (NHL) strike season.

I seem to recall hearing that one of the Russian teams (one from central/eastern Russia, IIRC) that year actually had the highest single-year wage bill in hockey history and something like the 4th-highest in all of sports history - in the region of $100million dollars, I think.

This is all just from my (slightly tipsy) memory though, so those figures could be somewhat off.

Eventually maybe.

Right now most teams have no problem with the cap as it's gone up substantially each year. In fact some clubs — and I'm talking about my own Katastrophik Kanucks here — due primarily to train-wreck management — are something like $16 million under the cap because no one wants to be associated with them.

If a trickle of players of Malkin and Jagr's quality turns into any sort of flood, and it might, then the cap will vanish faster than frost in July.

You think? The cap is there because most teams were on the verge of bankruptcy 5 years ago. The league's desire to keep Malkin et. al is presumably not stronger than clubs' sense of self-preservation, is it?

Not all the clubs were on the verge of bankruptcy. Bettman had real trouble selling the cap to the affluent among them (Toronto, Philadelphia, Detroit, NYR etc) in the first place. The strength of our mighty petro-dollar means other Canadian clubs are not as gung-ho about it now either. If too many of them start losing marquee players it'll be every man for himself.

I'm with Amor on this one.

Gramsci, my reference to ramifications outside the world of hockey was to my belief that Russia will become (and, in fact, is already becoming) a significant economic power that will be able to compete for athletic talent on a competitive footing with the biggest leagues in Western Europe and (eventually) North America (at least in hockey). As evidence for that, one can look at CSKA Moscow's success in European men's basketball and the kind of wages that Zenit St. Petersburg are paying the likes of Arshavin.

Ray Emery becomes the first black goalie in Russia. He may need all his brawling skills just to survive.

I really think this is going to be an interesting experiment. Sky Italia has recently added four Russian language channels to our package, and I am hoping that one of them has the rights.