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"Russian Factor" in NHL Draft: Situation Could Worsen Before It Improves

July 7, 2022, 8:06 AM ET [4 Comments]
Paul Stewart
Blogger •Former NHL Referee • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Over the course of the years I spent as a KHL advisor on matters of officiating and supplementary discipline for players, I made a lot of contacts and enduring friendships. The current political climate around the invasion of Ukraine -- and the incalculable direct cost and collateral damage to human life over and above the catastrophic economic costs -- is horrific.

Hockey is one of the casualties of Vladimir Putin's failure to learn the right lessons from history and his misguided obsession with recreating the "glories" of Stalinism and the USSR. The Russian Federation (and Belarus) is now banned from all IIHF competitions for the foreseeable future. The National Hockey League canceled the non-interference "Memorandum of Understanding" with the KHL regarding players whose contracts have expired. Deserving young players who have lifelong NHL dreams will fall precipitously in the NHL Entry Draft or not get chosen at all.

Over and above the sporting cost, though, my heart breaks over the human cost. Kids not just wanting to play hockey but simply to stay alive and avoid being sent to the killing fields that are the frontlines of the war against Ukraine. I know some of these young men and/or their parents. They are terrified, and for good reason.

The recent situation with 25-year-old Flyers goaltending prospect Ivan Fedotov is not limited just to the player but he was an easy target for the Putin regime and CKSKA Moscow (which is, at least technically still under the official oversight of the Russian Defense Ministry as a vestige of the USSR) to make an example of to scare others into compliance. He won't be the last.

Fedotov, a late-blooming pro, had a breakout 2021-22 season for CSKA, winning the KHL championship and starting in goal for the de facto national team. His contract with CSKA expired at the end of April. In early May, he signed a one-year NHL contract with the Flyers. Reportedly, he planned to travel to North America in July.

On July 1, Fedotov was arrested at a rink in St. Petersburg and detained by military police on a charge of "evading the draft". Putin recently raised the conscription age to 40. The player's cell phone was confiscated, preventing his attorney or family from getting in contact with him. He was sent to an undisclosed location to undergo military training -- which will require him to stay in Russia for at least a year, even if he never serves in active combat. He's also been hospitalized at least once -- there are disputed reports over whether he's had a second hospitalization -- for what is officially being described as "stress-induced" gastritis.

The Fedotov situation has gotten the attention of every hockey player in Russia, as well as every team in the National Hockey League. I do not know whether it will further affect where Russian players get selected in the 2022 Draft (which runs from Thursday to Friday). I do know that it further clouds the availability time for players strictly from the sense of being able to come overseas to play.

Russian state media claims that Fedotov never registered for military service and carried a fake registration card that he purchased from a corrupt law enforcement official. The degree of truth to this is dubious. The player's lawyer and family have said that he legally registered with a miliary office in another city years ago.

There have been counter-accusations that the Russian government and HC CSKA Moscow are retaliating against Fedotov for publicly announcing -- and then carrying through -- on leaving the KHL for the NHL. The team claims he had not fulfilled his entire contract and that it did not actually expire this year.

I can't speak to all the facts of the situation. It is very high-profile within Russia (although it's only gotten secondary attention in North America). The sources and information that emanate from their national newspaper and media outlets is often ripe for interference from the state, reliant on speculation, hearsay or present outright and deliberate disinformation.

This much I am sure of: Fedotov's case won't be the last one. This spring, Putin called up Russians with specialized skills in non-military realms -- including athletes -- to work at home and turn down opportunities in foreign countries. Of course, he tied that directly into "proving their patriotism".

Russian hockey players are particularly vulnerable here. The KHL was a Putin-driven initiative in the first place. Especially given the current situation, do not underestimate the lengths the Russian Federation will go to keep players from leaving from leaving for North America for as long as possible, if at all. If that means using things such as dramatic involuntary conscriptions and undesirable (even highly dangerous) assignments as a high-profile deterrent, I don't think there'd be any hesitation over and beyond the conscription of the national team goaltender just before he was to leave for North America.

Again, the damage to the sport of hockey is concerning. But the human cost here is downright petrifying and sickening. Final thought: even if players are allowed to put in their mandatory service to the Russian military concurrently with playing hockey overseas, I don't know what the U.S. State Department would have to say about enlisted men from an openly hostile country simultaneously holding work visas to live and earn money on American shores.

All I know for sure is this: It's a horrible situation and it's more likely to get worse before it gets better. My prayers are for the players and their families caught up in this nightmare.

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A 2018 inductee into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, Paul Stewart holds the distinction of being the first U.S.-born citizen to make it to the NHL as both a player and referee.  On March 15, 2003, he became the first American-born referee to officiate in 1,000 NHL games.
Visit Paul's official websites, YaWannaGo.com and Officiating by Stewart
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