Ovie to NHL: I'll play in the Olympics with or without your consent!

hemlock wrote:I guess I'll buck the trend here. Who the Diddle does this bunghole think he is?

Noone will stop you? How about Ted Leonsis, The National Hockey League, and the NHLPA. That's not even mentioning the IOC. If this guy thinks he can just walk off a pro team and play for Russia he's mistaken. If the NHL walks, the hockey will revert to amateurs, and based on the fact that he is a professional, he wouldn't be allowed by IOC rules. That's even if by some miracle the other bodies I mentioned consented to this.

If the NHL isn't in Sochi, neither will Ovechkin. This guy needs to get over his Diddle self.

That is a massively erroneous assumption. There ARE other professional leagues in the world who aren't likely to prohibit their players from joining their national teams for a couple weeks.

Beyond that, there's nothing they can do to stop him. They can take every possible legal recourse, but when he goes to Russia and you never see him again (except on the KHL highlights) what are they going to do about it? They are simply powerless to stop him.

The most likely outcome is for the NHL to allow for any individual player to leave their club teams to play in the Olympics, but to also continue on with the regular season regardless of those players' decisions/actions. They could simply say: "See you in two weeks or should we say 10 games..."

cas wrote:

hemlock wrote:I guess I'll buck the trend here. Who the Diddle does this bunghole think he is?

Noone will stop you? How about Ted Leonsis, The National Hockey League, and the NHLPA. That's not even mentioning the IOC. If this guy thinks he can just walk off a pro team and play for Russia he's mistaken. If the NHL walks, the hockey will revert to amateurs, and based on the fact that he is a professional, he wouldn't be allowed by IOC rules. That's even if by some miracle the other bodies I mentioned consented to this.

If the NHL isn't in Sochi, neither will Ovechkin. This guy needs to get over his Diddle self.

That is a massively erroneous assumption. There ARE other professional leagues in the world who aren't likely to prohibit their players from joining their national teams for a couple weeks.

Beyond that, there's nothing they can do to stop him. They can take every possible legal recourse, but when he goes to Russia and you never see him again (except on the KHL highlights) what are they going to do about it? They are simply powerless to stop him.

The most likely outcome is for the NHL to allow for any individual player to leave their club teams to play in the Olympics, but to also continue on with the regular season regardless of those players' decisions/actions. They could simply say: "See you in two weeks or should we say 10 games..."

You're kidding me right? Just that simple?

Historically, the hockey tournament in the Olympics has been an amateur tournament, which excludes prefessionals from playing. That is until 1998 in Nagano.

Furthermore, I suppose noone could PHYSICALLY stop him from going to Sochi, but he's in a legally binding contract. The team would have every legal right to stop him, or he breaches his contract, plain and simple. You don't think the NHL would stop this either? The Olympics happen right in the middle of the season. Do you honestly think even for one second that the league would even consider just letting guys go over and play while continuing the NHL schedule? Not a chance.

I'd bet money, that like I said, if the NHL isn't participating in the Olympics, and Ovechkin is still an NHL player at that point, he won't be there. Do you honestly believe he's going to risk his contract, and invite a huge legal battle to do so? I don't.

More than anything, it's the spouting off at the mouth from Ovechkin that annoys me. I'm all for the guy being honest and speaking his mind, but he clearly didn't put any thought into what he said beforehand. It's a ridiculous thing to say at this point imho.

You're kidding me, right???

Try enforcing that contract in RUSSIA!!! This isn't a North American we're talking about.... If Ovechkin wants to play in the Olympics and the NHL suspends him and sanctions him and sues him and w/e else they can think of, he'll just go play in the KHL and help legitimize that league.

I don't think North Americans really get how much danger there is long-term for the NHL as the premier league to play in. The talent level is quickly getting to the point that employable, high skilled players will soon be left out of the league simply because there aren't enough roster spots. At which point, they will go overseas and those leagues will slowly climb into the area of legitimacy. If that happens and Swedes and Ruskies start staying home, the NHL could very well become the professional version of the OHL with a QMJHL in Russia and a WHL in Sweden...

It really isn't that far-fetched. And this Ovechkin situation has the potential to be the catalyst to such an event (or the accelerator).

OH and the KHL will cause the biggest fuss you've ever seen if they aren't allowed to let their own pros play when the Olympics are in their country. No matter what happens with the NHL and with Ovechkin, you won't see Olympic hockey featuring purely amateurs anytime in the next decade (if ever again).

cas wrote: You're kidding me, right???

Try enforcing that contract in RUSSIA!!! This isn't a North American we're talking about.... If Ovechkin wants to play in the Olympics and the NHL suspends him and sanctions him and sues him and w/e else they can think of, he'll just go play in the KHL and help legitimize that league.

I don't think North Americans really get how much danger there is long-term for the NHL as the premier league to play in. The talent level is quickly getting to the point that employable, high skilled players will soon be left out of the league simply because there aren't enough roster spots. At which point, they will go overseas and those leagues will slowly climb into the area of legitimacy. If that happens and Swedes and Ruskies start staying home, the NHL could very well become the professional version of the OHL with a QMJHL in Russia and a WHL in Sweden...

It really isn't that far-fetched. And this Ovechkin situation has the potential to be the catalyst to such an event (or the accelerator).

OH and the KHL will cause the biggest fuss you've ever seen if they aren't allowed to let their own pros play when the Olympics are in their country. No matter what happens with the NHL and with Ovechkin, you won't see Olympic hockey featuring purely amateurs anytime in the next decade (if ever again).

If the IOC decides that it will go back to using amateurs again, what happens with the other leagues in relation to the Olympics is irrelevant. That's my point. The KHL being a threat to the NHL is a completely separate issue.

Up until 1998, professionals were not allowed to play, period. The USSR circumvented this by having their players play for the Central Red Army team, and not a "pro" team, thus retaining amateur status. Like I said, if the IOC returns to amateur status for hockey, it's irrelevant what league AO (or any other player) is in. As long as it's a professional league, he will not be allowed to play in the Olympics, KHL or otherwise.

I think the contract can be enforced and the Hudler ruling by the IIHF proves it. Both the NHL and KHL are under IIHF jurisdiction, and Hudler was allowed to go to the KHL simply because he never signed the arbitration filing, effectively denying Detroit his rights. Therefore he was free to leave. Ovechkin is under contract, and I doubt the IIHF rules in the KHL's favour. Whether the KHL accepts the IIHF's ruling is another matter however.

I don't believe that AO will just jump to the KHL if the NHL tries to stop him from playing in the Olympics. Simply put, the NHL is hands down the best league in the world. I cannot see him walking away from a $100+ million dollar contract. Sure he could get that in Russia, but at the end of the day, it's a lesser league. Your scenario of players leaving en masse to create several stronger world leagues that rival the NHL seems unlikely, although not out of the question. I certainly cannot envision one player leaving being the catalyst. Bobby Hull could probably back me on that point.

The IOC will also not be told what to do by Russia's pro hockey league. If they dictate that no pro players will be allowed, that's it. Entire nations have boycotted the games, for political reasons, but the games go on nonetheless. Russia's hockey league (or even the nation itself) isn't stiff arming the IOC into ANYTHING. How pro players (KHL, SEL) and not NHL players can be allowed to compete in the Olympics, is beyond me. I think it's all or nothing. It's just too much BS to allow this guy, but not that guy. It's a nightmare for the IIHF. Both the NHL and the KHL fall under the IIHF's jurisdiction, so even if the KHL wants to compete, if the IIHF cannot convince all of it's member leagues to participate, none will in my opinion.

I'm not getting into a debate about what threat the KHL poses to the NHL because that has nothing to do with the point I was making, which was that as a professional, AO will not be playing in the Olympics as an NHL player if the NHL pulls out of Olympic participation. Whether or not he jumps ship is not the issue. The issue is he thinking he can have his cake (play in the Olympics) and eat it too (continue to play in the NHL if the NHL isn't involved in the Olympics). It's not happening. The NHL and the NHLPA will not let one player dictate how they do things.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, because really all we are doing is beating our heads against a wall here.