Do you see the NHL and KHL agreeing to a type of player transfer system between leagues?

Not any time soon. The NHL is just not prepared any more than what they have to......and keep in mind, the NHL currently has no transfer agreement with Sweden, Germany, Slovakia, or the Czech Republc as well (the deal worked out in the summer of 2008 fell apart in December 2008 when the Czech's reneged on the agreement and the dominoes started falling).





Currently, the NHL sends the IIHF money for every player drafted from outside Hockey Canada and USA Hockey (the latter two get their money directly).......and so far.....none of the money has been sent back by any of the European Leagues.





As we found out with the Malkin situation, as long as the player and his representatives follow the laws in their countries, it makes it easy for the player to choose where HE wants to play.








Spacerabbit - the transfer deal only affects players who are drafted. Once a player has been signed a contract, the transfer deal doesn't apply.





The transfer agreement is an agreement that the NHL has with various international federations to provide compensation for the development of talent. When the NHL drafts a player from a league run by Hockey Canada....the NHL cuts a cheque to Hockey Canada ($75K/player). When the NHL drafts a player from a USA Hockey partner or US High School, they cut a cheque to USA Hockey ($100K) or the high school ($75K), and likewise when the NHL drafts a player from a European League, they cut a cheque to that league through the IIHF ($250K). The NHL is the ONLY league in the world that pays for talent. The sticking point in the current situation is that the KHL and Czech leagues want a sliding scale starting at $1MM for a first rounder (such as Ovechkin/Cherepanov) down to $400K for a 7th rounder. There are NHL teams that would be disadvantaged at paying $1MM for a European first rounder





The purpose of the transfer fee is that the NHL cuts the cheque a few days after the draft....in return, the NHL team obtains that player's NHL rights AND (in theory) there is nothing stopping that player from signing with the team when he's ready. As the purpose of the money is to continue U-20 player development, the fee gets paid whether the player desires to play in the NHL or not.





Currently USA Hockey and Hockey Canada don't have transfer deals with the IIHF because the belief is that these kids want to play in the NHL.





So, a transfer agreement has no bearing on young NHLers playing anywhere in Europe...once a player is not under contract to an NHL team, he's free to sign with whomever they want without transfer worries.











Now, there is a second issue that needs to be resolved, and has nothing to do with the transfer agreement, and that is the recognition that a player is under contract to another league. Currently the KHL says it will respect that - but has stolen players from the NHL (Radulov), the Elitsarien, and the Czech Superliga who still had existingyears left on their contracts. There is also the grey area that Jiri Hudler was in last summer. The transfer agreement doesn't cover these moves, but a level of mutual respect is needed between leagues.|||The IIHF has long avoided the issue of transfer fees between leagues because there is a belief that the NHL is heads above the European Leagues, so that all the transfer money would be one way because everybody will want to transfer from a European League to the NHL

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|||In Europe, the Elitsarien (SEL) and KHL are considered even competitively by both the NHL and IIHF. The KHL has the better top end talent, but it balances out. The top 3 players on a KHL team are better than the top 3 on an SEL team, but the bottom 8 on the SEL team are much better than the KHL's

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|||So, until such time that there is more balance among the European Leagues, or they all catch up to the NHL, intra league transfer fees will be non-existent (there is a $25K fee payable for RFA equivalents in Europe who switch countries, but nothing for UFAs).

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|||Such a system was tried in Europe in the 1970s between Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and Italy but there was no major movement (Soviet and Czech leagues were off limits at the time) and it was abandoned soon thereafter.





LITY

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|||I could see it happening if it could be shown to be fiscally beneficial to both leagues. Gary "The Grinch" Bettman is, in my opinion, the only thing stopping this from happening. I think that the KHL would love to have the opportunity to have lower level NHL players who are interested in improving their skills and living in a different country play in the league, while also getting to see kids that would be called up to the NHL flourish.