Russian ruble nosedive threatening KHL’s future
MOSCOW— The Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League saw itself as the oil-rich rival to the NHL, offering a tempting, if less prestigious, alternative to playing in North America.
As the league planned to expand as far as Britain, the money on offer even attracted Russian stars such as Ilya Kovalchuk and Alexander Radulov, who walked out on lucrative NHL deals to return home.
Then came the crash of the ruble this week. The financial crisis has threatened the plans of players such as former Vancouver Canucks goaltender Curtis Sanford, who came to Russia to save for his retirement.
“It’s just really happened all of a sudden,” the 35-year-old Sanford told The Associated Press. “These are some things that you don’t expect when you sign a contract.”
The ruble had been sliding against the dollar for most of the year against the backdrop of low oil prices and economic sanctions against Russia, but went into free fall Monday and Tuesday. Following a slight recovery, it has still lost almost half of its value against the dollar this year.
With KHL rules stipulating rubleonly contracts for teams based in Russia, that is bad news for the many U.S., Canadian and European imports on 22 clubs. Russia’s economic woes are starting to spread into Belarus and Kazakhstan, potentially shrinking the incomes for players on KHL teams there.
Revealing that he had not been paid for three months at Russian club Yugra Khanty-Mansiisk, except for small amounts to buy food, forward Ilari Melart told the Ilta Sanomat newspaper in his native Finland that he was not “in Siberia for charity.” Another Finn, goaltender Mikko Koskinen, was accused by Russian media this month of having refused to play for Sibir Novosibirsk because his ruble salary had dropped. Koskinen, who denies the claims, was traded to SKA St. Petersburg two days later.
“The league’s financial situation is stable and we’re looking calmly at the current economic situation. The season will be finished as planned,” league president Dmitry Chernyshenko told local media after meeting with club heads Thursday. He also dismissed rumours the league could enforce across-the-board pay cuts.