IIHF-NHL Player Transfer Agreement

[Rimmer]

sorry if this had already been posted:

August 16 – ZURICH – The International Ice Hockey Federation and the National Hockey League have today reached a two-year Player Transfer Agreement including the national associations and leagues of the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Slovakia and Switzerland.

The agreement furthermore cements that NHL players will be released for purposes of participating for their respective countries in the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin.

The Russian ice hockey authorities did not agree to the deal where player transfers from the European IIHF-leagues will be regulated with regards to financial compensation, an annual limit on transfers and a transfer deadline. Any players signed by the NHL from Russia will not be regulated by the Player Transfer Agreement.

--full article from IIHF website--

R.

[Rimmer]

some numbers put into the deal:

Under the new five-year agreement, the NHL will put $12.5 million annually into a development fund administered by the IIHF, upping the pot from the $9 million in the previous deal.

The IIHF will re-distribute the money among those national federations and clubs who lose players to the NHL, based on a formula decided by the IIHF and the national federations.

The new formula would value a first overall draft pick at $900,000, the second overall pick at $880,000, third overall at $860,000, all the way down to 30th overall decreasing by $20,000 each time.

Second-round and later draft picks would be valued at $150,000 each.

--full article--

R.

[Rimmer]

Kovalev's thoughts on this matter:

Alexei Kovalev: Adjust your business relationships with Russia

Translated by Alexei Belousenko

The captain of the National Russian team Alexei Kovalev commented the situation around the refusal of Russian Hockey Federation to sign the NHL-IIHF agreement. This interview is translated from the official player’s web-site.

Do you think, this is the right decision not to sign the agreement?

A. Kovalev: Sure, it is. We are establishing the business relationships between the leagues. These relationships should be based on a partnership, but not look as a robbery. NHL wants to take our players for a piece of cake. So, do they think of Russians as of fools? No, if you are going to invite good players from Russia, than pay for it the real money. The appropriate business is when every business partner is satisfied, not only one partner.

--full article--

R.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

rimmer said:

The appropriate business is when every business partner is satisfied, not only one partner.

[/i]

--full article--

R.[/quote]
Doesn't Kovalev know that the rest of the hockey world exists merely for the benefit of the NHL, just as the world's oil supplies exist to fuel North Amarican cars and industry. He should take a more global, far-sighted view of things.

[Rimmer]

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think i've read somewhere that some of the russian (and european) stars invest their money in youth hockey back home. while some or most of that money is surely given and return is not expected, i wouldn't be surprised if they sign some kind of agreements with russian clubs to split the money received from the NHL when that player leaves for NA. there are many examples of that in my country (not in hockey though) so maybe it's not that different in russia either. this is, of course, all speculation on my part...

R.