Former Soviet hockey legend, Stanley Cup Champion, and current Russian senator is starting to make waves with a new proposal on how Russia will treat players who sign over in the KHL.

Slava Fetisov (who is a Senator in Russia now, BTW) proposes to forbid KHL players from joining the NHL until the age of 28.

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) May 22, 2015

But it isn't just Russian players they want to target:

re Fetisov's new Iron Curtain proposal: he wants it to cover ALL KHL players under 28, not just Russians. pic.twitter.com/E5qY19A17F

— Igor Kleyner (@IgorKleyner) May 22, 2015

Ooof.

This is an incredibly shortsighted proposal and one that I can see backfiring on Russia.

Russian hockey politics have played into their national team coming up short in the lion's share of international tournaments since the creation of the KHL. You frequently see peculiar coaching decisions that will place KHL players over the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Vladimir Tarasenko and other players of that ilk. It is almost like they go out of their way to reward the players who stay home. The problem with this is that except for a few outliers (Kovalchuk, Radulov) most staying in Russia aren't exactly in demand by the NHL. At the very least they aren't difference making players.

Slava Fetisov's proposal will prevent talented young Russian players from playing against the best players in the world on a regular basis. They won't hit their potential ceilings as a player. This will once again neuter Russia's ability to compete at the highest level internationally.

The writing is on the wall financially for Russia and this is probably a last ditch effort for Russia to keep its home grown players. Russia knows they probably can't afford them in the future and need to create artificial barriers to keep their players at home. I believe young Russian players are going to scoff at the idea of staying in Russia until the prime of their careers are over. They will want to make money while they are playing at the top of their game. Russia's money is becoming more and more like monopoly money these days. The allure of North America's USD contracts will become too hard to pass up.

shocked to hear a goober idiot from the KHL is crying because the ruble collapsed and young russians want to earn a living in the sport

— i, rl (@twolinepass) May 22, 2015

While Russia's currency is declining in strength I assume it would be better to be paid in rubles than nothing. Some KHL teams aren't paying their players at all.

Former Penguin Ryan Whitney hasn't been paid since before January.

First I've heard of this. Can we please just get paid @cemmer48 ? https://t.co/gLtoDCnBZ9

— Ryan Whitney (@ryanwhitney6) May 13, 2015

Lastly, and the most egregious thing about this whole situation is Slava Fetisov himself. Slava Fetisov famously fought against the Soviet government to allow him a work visa to play in the NHL. This fight is well documented in the insanely good ESPN 30 for 30 piece "Of Miracles and Men".

The documentary painted Fetisov as a sympathetic character who was being oppressed by an overbearing government. Eventually Fetisov was granted his visa and went on to have great success in the NHL. His success opened the flood gates for many great Russian players to come over and play in the NHL.

Fetisov's new proposal is basically repeating history that he fought against. It goes against everything he was fighting for. He is a giant hypocrite and should know better. Forcing people to stay somewhere will only lead to them wanting to go somewhere else. He is fighting against human nature.

The man that should know best, knows least.

Thanks for reading!

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