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By Chelsea Guy
With hard checks, spilt blood, and toothless grins a consitent part of the spectacle, hockey is not a sport for everyone. But for hockey fans around the world, nothing is more thrilling than seeing their favorite team out-skate and out-score the others.
In the hockey world, competition has ratcheted up another notch in recent months as the Russian Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) competes for prospective players against North America’s National Hockey League (NHL), according to the New York Times.
The KHL, a new ice hockey league in Eurasia that replaced the Russian Super Hockey League (founded in 1996) after the 2007-2008 season, consists of 24 teams from Russia and other countries that were apart of the Soviet Union. The new league was founded and is owned by Russian oil mogul Alexander Medvedev. Large state-run companies like Gazprom and Rosoboronezport are also increasingly financially supportive of the league.
The NHL consists of 24 teams from the United States and six teams from Canada. The league was formed in 1917 with only five teams.
Hockey players from around the globe have been lured to the NHL in the past because of the league’s distinguished reputation, as well as the well-paying contracts it offered, according to the New York Times.
But now the KHL is able to offer players salaries that are comparable to those of the NHL, taking into account the low income taxes the country offers.
New Russian contract laws have also made it more difficult for the NHL to draft Russian players. In Russia, hockey players used to have the right, under Russian labor law, to give two weeks notice and break off a contract with a team. The NHL clubs frequently took advantage of this law to sign Russian players who were already on a Russian team. Now a bill was introduced to make Russian contracts similar to American and Canadian contracts so that the NHL teams will now have to wait until the Russian player's contract is up before they can sign them.
The KHL has begun to vie for players in the NHL, and has succeeded in luring several of them to KHL teams, according to The Sun.
But even still, 26 Russian hockey players play on the 30 teams of the NHL. And because of the reputation of the NHL, more Russian players are expected to come, according to the New York Times.
In an interview with Alessandro Seren Rosso, a correspondent for hockey news group Russian Prospects, the young Russian hockey player, Vyacheslav Voinov, explained why he chose to come to America instead of playing on a KHL team.
“I wanted to challenge myself and prove to everybody and myself that I can play in the NHL sooner or later,” Voinov said. “I wanted to see what the life is like here, what the organization is like here and what people are like here.”
In the interview, Voinov also talked about his future plans in hockey.
“This season I have no plans to return to KHL and my situation must get very desperate for me to consider such (an) option in the future,” he said. “My plan is to play in the NHL, but if I am unable to make it, certainly KHL is an option that is left if my dream does not come true.”
For now, the tension is still high between the two leagues, but many hope that the KHL and the NHL will eventually be able to work together to improve the sport and help it grow globally.