There is more hockey to be played on an outdoor rink from a historical site. Universal Sports presents live broadcast coverage of the first-ever Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) All-Star Game between Team Yashin and. Team Jagr, this Saturday at 8 a.m. ET from Red Square in Moscow.
Team Yashin, featuring Russian-born players and led by former New York Islanders center Alexei Yashin, will take on Team Jagr, made up of players from the rest of the world and captained by former Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers star winger Jaromir Jagr.
"With the excitement of last weekend's Winter Classic still fresh, the idea of top international hockey stars playing under the stars in Red Square in Moscow is something that shouldn't be missed," said Universal Sports' David Michaels.
COVERAGE ON UNIVERSAL SPORTS: Universal Sports, available in 30 million homes, will present a live broadcast on its 24-hour television network from 8:00– 10:30 a.m. ET and a same day encore presentation from 11:00 p.m. – 1:30 a.m. ET.
COVERAGE ON UNIVERSALSPORTS.COM: Universal Sports will offer a free, global live webcast on UniversalSports.com starting 8:00 a.m. ET. The game will be available for on-demand viewing.
COMMENTATORS: John Ahlers (play-by-play), the television voice of Anaheim Ducks and Brent Severyn (color commentator), Ducks radio analyst, will call all the action from the Universal Sports studio in Los Angeles.
MICHAELS ON THE BUZZ FACTOR: "This particular game is what Universal Sports is all about. This kind of exciting international event that in the past hasn't had a place to air. With the excitement of last weekend's Winter Classic still fresh, the idea of the top international hockey players playing under the stars in Red Square in Moscow is something that shouldn't be missed," said David Michaels, NBC Emmy Award-winning producer and head of Universal Sports production.
Source: NBC Sports
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The European “Super League†set to launch in September will boast the first major NHL player to cross back over the Atlantic to play for big money.
JaromÃr Jágr, who is ranked second in active players in career goals, assists, and points, will play next season for Avangard Omsk of the Russian Super League. Avangard Omsk   is one of 24 teams that will comprise the new Continental Hockey League set to launch in September.
The 36-year-old Jágr, who hales from the Czech Republic, played for Avangard Omsk during the 2004-05 NHL lockout.
While contract details were not made public, the deal is reportedly a 2 year, $7 million tax free (approx. $11 million when removing taxes). There is an option year, as well, and a “no-out†clause meaning Jágr is locked in for the duration of the contract.
"It was the toughest decision in my life, hockeywise. ... No question about it. I hate making changes," Jágr told The Canadian Press.
Since 1990, Jágr has played for the Penguins, Capitals, and Rangers.
Over 1,273 NHL games, he had amassed 1,599 points on 646 goals and 953 assists.
The question is, will there be more players jumping over to the Continental Hockey League? The league has deep pockets.
Alexander Medvedev, who is the deputy chief executive officer of Gazprom, the largest company in Russia, and Russian Hockey Federation President Vladislav Tretiak, announced plans to launch the new league earlier this year.
The NHL's all-time winningest coach, Scott Bowman, and former NHLPA's executive director Bob Goodenow are involved in the CHL.
At the same time, the NHL announced recently that the salary cap will increase from $50.3 million to $56.7 million, an increase of $6.4 million.
The max one player can earn in the upcoming season? $11.34 million, just over what Jágr will pull in without taxes in the CHL.
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With the victory of the Russian National Team at the World Ice Hockey Championships this month, much has been said about the resurgence of the sport in Russia. While the NHL is full of young Russian stars like Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, and Ilya Kovulchuk, it has been the new league set to begin this year in Russia and three other former Soviet Republics, known as the Continental Hockey League (KHL), which has also received a great deal of press.
The attention given to the league is largely the result of the ambitious people running it, who openly state that their intentions are to create a rival to the NHL. Alexander Medvedev, deputy CEO of the state run gas giant Gazprom, Vladislav Tretiak, President of the Russian Hockey Federation, and Slava Fetisov, the Russian Sports Minister are just a few of the prominent men involved with the league. In addition to Gazprom, which controls 16% of the world’s gas reserves and have promised sponsorship of $100 million a year, several other major state run companies are contributing money to the league including insurance companies Ingosstrakh, banks VTB Group and Vnesheconombank, and oil pipeline monopoly OAO Transneft.
With big money and influential people involved in the project, there is huge excitement for the league which is set to kick off this September. The League has goals of bringing the top players in the world, with rumors that stars like Jaromir Jagr are interested, while other clubs have expressed interest in signing Ovechkin (and giving him a huge pay raise) if contract talks in the NHL fall through. The KHL also has talked of expanding to create a ‘Super League’ throughout Europe.
But despite all the press and the big goals, the question remains, is this league a genuine threat to North American hockey or just hype which will soon fade away? This report will look at Ice Hockey in and sports in general in Russia, to see what chance this league has for success.
Collapse and Revival of Russian Ice Hockey
Having won seven gold medals and 22 World Championships, for many years the Soviet Union was without doubt the major force in International Ice Hockey, with players on the famed Red Army team such as Fetisov, Tretiak, and Valery Kharlamov who became household names for hockey fans around the world.
But with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the hockey structure, like many other areas in Russia, quickly fell apart. Mass departures of talented Russian hockey players followed, as they sought fortunes in the NHL, as well as other parts of Europe. The opportunities to make a fortune in the West combined with the terrible financial situation made it nearly impossible for Russian clubs to hold onto their players. By 1995, the average player in the Russian league was only making $1000 a month, while during the same year the average NHL player was earning approximately $750,000 a year.
However, over the years, hockey in Russia slowly began to improve. Largely thanks to the patronage of politicians or businessmen some clubs began to pay higher salaries and keep more of their talent. By the turn of the century, players were often paid around $25,000 a season, but just a few years later, top players were earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
Select Read More to see details on this original article on Russian hockey, and the upcoming Continental Hockey League
Russia’s fledgling Continental Hockey League, which is being touted as a competitor to the NHL, will launch in September with 24 teams, according to league president Alexander Medvedev. It will, however, look like a retooled version of the Russian Super League as 20 of those teams will be within the CHL. As reported by the Globe and Mail:
In an interview yesterday from Montreal, where he was elected to the International Ice Hockey Federation council, Medvedev said the league will adopt international rules and intends to hold a draft that could include NHL players.
"We are planning to draft players from around the world, including the NHL," he said.
The 24 teams will play for the Gagarin Cup, named for cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space. The top two teams will then compete in a Europe-wide championship.
Already, the CHL appears to siphoning off NHL talent. As reported by Newsday, former Islanders enforcer Chris Simon has signed on with the CHL.
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"Alexander Medvedev, Gazprom's deputy chief executive officer, and Russian Hockey Federation President Vladislav Tretiak signed an accord in Moscow to create the Continental Hockey League by April 15, the federation said on its Web site today.
Medvedev is a member of the organizational committee of the Open Hockey League, which is working with the Russian Hockey Federation to form the new league.
"This is the evolution of the Russian Super League,'' Russian Hockey Federation spokesman Vladimir Gerasimov said in a telephone interview after the signing. ``We need to take another step and secure investment from state corporations.''
While the idea of creating this league is not news, it previously faced some obstacles, with the Russian Hockey Leagueagainst the idea just a short while ago.
"Meanwhile, the head of the Russian Hockey Federation, Vladislav Tretyak, is against the idea.
"There are a number of problems at the moment. The clubs are worried because they don't know whether there'll be 16, 18 or 20 clubs in the new league. I get the feeling, the Open Russian Hockey League doesn't know what they want," he said."
It was also reported that in total, six state-run companies including billionaire Oleg Deripaska's Ingosstrakh insurer will each invest $6 M in the league that will try and stop the hemorrhaging of Russian talent to America.
"The four other companies are oil-pipeline monopoly OAO Transneft, the VTB Group and Vnesheconombank banks and the insurance company Rosgosstrakh, Sovietsky Sport said.
The league will have 20 Russian clubs and an undetermined number of foreign ones, Gerasimov said.
"We can't rush,'' he said. "We need to make sure it won't interfere with the national team and the youth league.''
The NHL's all-time winningest coach, Scott Bowman, and former NHLPA's top figure Bob Goodenow are reportedly involved in the creation of this competitor to the NHL.
Dave Rouleau is a staff writer for the Business of Sports Network, where he covers baseball and hockey on The Biz of Baseball and The Biz of Hockey. He also can be found on Baseball Digest Daily, Inside the Dome (Scout.com), and Seamheads.com. His contact info can be found on the Authors Profiles.
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Gazprom, a company with a market value of $304 billion, has taken the first official steps toward creating a rival to the National Hockey League:
