When the Pittsburgh Penguins finally got Evgeni Malkin out of Russia, multiple other Russian players were targeted.

When the Pittsburgh Penguins drafted Evgeni Malkin second overall in 2004, it wasn't a guarantee he'd ever play for them.

A lockout in 2004-05 and a contract dispute in his native Russia forced the Penguins to wait on their top prospect.

After said wait, Malkin finally made his way to Pittsburgh, where he has been for 17 seasons and built a Hall of Fame career.

The Russian Ice Hockey Federation, however, was not pleased with losing one of their marquee names and kicked off a hard push to bring Russian players back if they weren't getting proper treatment in the NHL.

In this archive story from The Hockey News, Ken Campbell dives into some of the biggest names Russian Hockey looked to nab back from the NHL.

Sept. 19, 2006: Vol. 60, Issue 03

The Russian Ice Hockey Federation has pretty much given up on getting Evgeni Malkin back, but don’t expect Europe’s biggest producer of NHL players to go quietly into the night.

In fact, many NHL eyes will be on Alexander Radulov, the Canadian Hockey League’s player of the year last season, when he reports to training camp with the Nashville Predators.

If Radulov is assigned to the minors by the Preds, it’s expected that a Russian club will offer the 20-year-old a contract to choose Russia over the American League.

The prospect of making $80,000 in Milwaukee isn’t as appealing when Radulov can make more than 10 times that amount and play at home.

And with the absence of a transfer agreement between the NHL and Russia, the whole thing could become rather murky – and ugly.

“To the extent a player is under contract and validly assigned to the minor leagues, he will be expected to report there,” said NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly. “We will do everything within our power to help our clubs enforce their contractual rights.”

There are those, though, who contend Malkin is also under contract to Metallurg Magnitogorsk, but that didn’t stop the Penguins from signing him.

Complicating matters also is the curious case of Alexander Semin, who played 52 games for the Washington Capitals in 2003-04, then balked at reporting to the Portland Pirates for the lockout season and spent the past two seasons with Lada Togliatti in Russia (and was suspended by the Capitals).

But Semin is back in the Capitals’ fold with a two-year, one-way contract, despite not fulfilling two of the three years of his entry-level deal.

Meanwhile, a Russian court ruled Calgary prospect Andrei Taratukhin and Edmonton prospect Alexei Mikhnov breached their contracts with Yaroslavl by signing NHL deals.

At issue is Article 80 of the Russian Labor Code that was unearthed by agent Don Meehan during his brief tenure representing Malkin. The provision states any contract in Russia can be broken with two weeks notice – which Malkin gave, despite the fact he didn’t fulfill his obligations to his employer since Aug. 12. The Russian court ruled in the Taratukhin and Mikhnov cases that the provision is usurped by Article 26 of Russian Federal Sports Law, which apparently says the two-week provision does not apply to sports contracts.

THN Archive is an exclusive vault of 2,640 issues and more than 156,000 for subscribers, chronicling the complete history of The Hockey News from 1947 until today. Visit THN.com/archive and subscribe today at subscribe.thehockeynews.com

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