KHL, the Sorpranos of the hockey world

[cbrooks]

Found this article off a GF Herald sportswriters blog. Warning- its long but well worth it. It just tells stories of the corruption in hockey over in the Russian league.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/int...art-of-the-game

[Bear55]

Interesting read, sounds a little scary over there.

[OnAFly]

Very little of that surprises me. I've got a coworker who's from Russia and from his stories, it sounds like not just the Hockey leagues are that way.

[cbrooks]

I was a little surprise on how things work over there but like you said OntheFly, it's probably how everything works there. I was a little concern in that article when it said if the price of oil goes up you could see alot of the big NHLer names going over there for the money but then again.... Who in there right mind would want to be in business with the Russian mafia.

[OnAFly]

I don't think that problem will last very long if they keep pulling the carp they've been pulling to not pay out contracts. The only reason those guys go over there is money, and when you basically don't have a contract, there's no incentive to go.

If the KHL keeps operating like it has the last few years, it will get over run with corruption and will disband.

[cbrooks]

I imagine that alot of the North American players are fixing to get out of that league. Heck you can go to europe and make good money with a legit contract and no US income taxes with held.

[OnAFly]

No kidding, plus you don't have to fly on a plane that has been banned by the rest of the world. That would be scary.

[SneakAttack]

If Slava Fetisov is right and all the euro's leave the NHL for the KHL, ill start watching again. Then the NHL could fold up half the teams cause the league is so watered down and you would have 16 teams with the best North Americans, sounds good to me

[OnAFly]

The NHL is a little watered down these days. Just look at guys like Ott and Cooke and Gillies(of NYI). They've got no business playing pro hockey, but the bottom of the barrel is pretty far down these days.

The could fold 6 teams and be just fine. Maybe then we wouldn't have a problem with half our stars getting cheapshotted to death.