The Hockey News: Ken Campbell's blog: THN.com Blog: Lack of transfer agreement won't stop flow of Euros to NHL

THN.com Blog: Lack of transfer agreement won't stop flow of Euros to NHL

The Dallas Stars won't have to pay Farjestads a dime for Fabian Brunnstrom. (Bruce Jessop/IHA)

Ken Campbell
2008-06-17 14:48:15

Now that the transfer agreement between the NHL and the International Ice Hockey Federation is history, the NHL can stop pretending it cares about international hockey.

For years, the league paid lip service – and backed it up with a cash commitment – to the notion it was concerned about the development of European players and was more than happy to help those countries out by providing a stipend for the players they extracted.

The previous agreement with the IIHF provided a structured framework for player transfers and, more importantly, payment of more than $10 million a year for teams in Europe.

But the European federations, led by the Russians, refused to sign a re-worked version of the agreement and now they will get nothing.

The fact is, the absence of an agreement between the NHL and IIHF will not stem the flow of European players to the NHL one iota. If there are fewer Europeans in the NHL, it will be more because teams have only two years to sign European draft picks under the new collective bargaining agreement where in the past they could leave them to develop in Europe in perpetuity.

When NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the league is going “in a different direction” with respect to a transfer agreement, that was basically code for “we know they need us way more than we need them.”

The NHL has soured on its involvement in international hockey lately and has begun to realize that working to promote the game globally has done almost nothing for the league’s fortunes. That’s why it’s very likely 2010 will be the last time you’ll see NHL players involved in the Winter Olympics.

Related Links

NHL to go 'different direction' after transfer agreement with IIHF expires

And it’s not because there’s no agreement with the IIHF, either, because the league could shut down for two weeks if it wanted and make its players available for the Olympics with or without the approval of the IIHF.

Actually, the league has made nice with the European federations for some time now more out of a sense of courtesy than anything else. No other professional sports league has an all-encompassing agreement with another body the way the NHL did with the IIHF.

Now that those federations have essentially turned their backs on the league, the NHL will carry on and they’ll now take European players for free.

Ken Campbell is a senior writer for The Hockey News and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog normally appears Tuesdays and Fridays and his column, Campbell's Cuts, appears Mondays.

For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, Subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.

COMMENTS (8)

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Dave G Posted
(2009-04-30 06:26:52)

As the IIHF prez Rene Fasel and Don Cherry have argued over the years (strange bedfellows), there are too many Euros in the NHL. Sure, the great players like Zetterberg or Ovechkin or Lidstrom or Kovalchuk should come over, but the third-line and fourth-line Euros (or AHL-ers) have no business in the NHL. They should be over in Europe keeping their fans happy and their own hockey leagues healthy. It's simple--premier players come over, middling players stay home.

Dave G Posted
(2009-04-30 06:26:52)

One more thing. The reason why marginal third or fourth-line Euros or Euro AHL players should stay home in Europe is in order for them to get quality ice time, to improve their game. They certainly won't get better sitting on a bench in North America, or playing 10 minutes a night, and certainly are wasting their careers in the AHL, when they could be improving their own teams and leagues back in Europe.

Craig Posted
(2009-04-30 06:26:50)

If Olympic hockey is soooo important to Euro-born players, then I would expect to see many of them sign NHL contracts which expire the year before the Olympics (so they can be free to sign a one-year deal across the pond which will free them up to play in the Games). At a hugely reduced salary since the big Russian Zuper League will have folded by then (arena sizes just don't support the gate receipts they will need to pay big money contracts) ... and none of the other Euro leagues pay anything close to NHL-sized wages. But I'm not holding my breath. More of them will choose money over the Olympic Games than not.

Ivan M Posted
(2009-04-30 06:26:47)

It will not be fair if Vancouver gets the NHL players for the Olympics and Sochi doesn't. If Canadians grow up dreaming of Stanley Cup, the likes of Ovechkin and Malkin grew up dreaming of winning the Olympic Gold, and I don't think NHL can deny their top stars an opportunity to compete for it. It also won't help NHL's popularity in Europe if they do decide to block the NHL players from going. You Canadians need to come to grips that outside of North America, Olympic hockey is no. 1 hockey event for the fans, and European federations won't give up so easily, nor will the players. We love watching the Stanley Cup, but the ultimate competition is the Olympics, where players don't compete with thoughts of better contracts or bonuses but they are laying their all for their home countries. Otherwise, they'll have to bring the Canada Cup back.

Trevor Clissold Posted
(2009-04-30 06:26:47)

I'm surprised to see such a blinkered article in THN. The idea that the NHL will get along fine without worldwide involvement is laughable. Hockey is a religion in Canada but south of the border it barely gets noticed despite the fact it's been 15 years since a Canadian team last won it. From what I gather there's a joke of a TV deal for the NHL doing very little to promote the sport league in its own market. Failing this the only option is to try and promote the NHL in the next biggest hockey market - Europe. Without promoting the game over this side of the pond there's no desire for kids to take up hockey and they'll be lost to other sports, over time you'll start to see fewer Europeans entering the league (and don't give me this rubbish about them not being good enough anyway) and the quality of the Europeans will drop off all leading to the NHL becoming an isolated league and dropping further behind the NFL, NBA and MLB. And I don't for one minute think the players will stand for not being allowed to play in the Olympics, as Ivan M said, competing at the Olympics is a dream, it's about the pride of representing your country, yes there's the World Championships but they're every year and no tournament in any sport can match the achievement of competing at the Olympics. Even if it doesn't matter to the Canadian and US players it will to the Europeans. As for professionals being in the Olympics, the idea of it being an amateur event disappeared years ago, all of the athletes now are paid professionals, the track and field athletes, swimmers, the vast majority of them have contracts and compete for money. It's the same for the winter Olympics, they all compete in professional tours and tournaments throughout the year. It's an ideal that just doesn't exist anymore.

Bob Allisat Posted
(2009-04-30 06:26:46)

The game will develop quite fine without the "International" or Olympis nonsense of days gone by. Between the old NHL and the brash new kids on the ice at the Kontinental Hockey League there will be increased competition for players from everywhere. Damn the old European little league hockey fiefdoms, the meaningless Olympic oligarchies and their silly munchkinland non-champeenships. Pro players will battle it out soon in two simultaneous full seasons of professional hockey and their respective championships. This bodes better for hockey than expired money for players deals. And everyone knows it on both sides of the Atlantic/Pacific.

Mark McAuley Posted
(2009-04-30 06:26:46)

NHL players should never have been allowed in the Olympics to begin with. The Olympics were designed specifically for amateur athletes. Professional hockey players already have the Stanley Cup playoffs, the World Cup of Hockey and the IIHF World Hockey Championships. I can understand the desire of the NHL to display the best of its talent to an international audience, but to subvert the foundations of the Olympic Games to do so is an unethical way to go about it. How about reverting to a 24 team league (in viable hockey markets) that would allow for a greater saturation of talent per team and fewer of the fringe checkers that belong in the AHL and suffocate offense?

Kjetil Aasland Posted
(2009-04-30 06:26:42)

"The NHL has soured on its involvement in international hockey lately and has begun to realize that working to promote the game globally has done almost nothing for the league’s fortunes. That’s why it’s very likely 2010 will be the last time you’ll see NHL players involved in the Winter Olympics." Maybe you need to have a bit more of a long-term perspective than 10 years if you want to see the benefits of promoting the game globally? Well, maybe it's not surprising that a league historically notorious for its inacapacity to take the long-term view doesn't, but I'd have thought THN would.