NHLPA Exec Kelly Speaks Out on NHL/KHL Contracts

The NHL and KHL should be "respecting each other's contracts," said National Hockey League Players Association Executive Director Paul Kelly after recent Stanley Cup competition. This discussion was in part centered on Michael Nylander's contract status with the Washington Capitals.

Kelly was interviewed by Dmitry Chesnokov who presented these comments as part of a lenghier article for Yahoo! Sports.

The hockey association executive said that minus a transfer agreement between the NHL and the Russians, a player with an NHL contract cannot technically go to play in Russia.

"Technically, he can't," said Kelly. "Unless the Capitals take certain steps to end his contract by buying him out or something like that. And this is one of the issues we have had with the KHL. We should be respecting each other's contracts. The NHL shouldn't be signing any players under contract in Russia, and vice versa, they shouldn't be signing guys who have NHL obligations. We will watch that very carefully, but they should not permit players, who have contractual obligations elsewhere, to sign."

Kelly did opine that if such a signing with the KHL is "cleared by the club and the league approves, then it is a different story." But he added that he was not aware that such was the case with respect to Nylander.

When asked what needs to happen to "normalize the relationship with the Russsians," Kelly said:

"We want hockey to be strong everywhere. Including, we think it's good for hockey to have a strong KHL. You know, it'd be nice to have some kind of transfer agreement that would make sense. "Thus far, we've not had much success reaching common ground with the Russians on the transfer agreement.

"I think you're right that as long as we have people like Ovechkin, Malkin, Kovalchuk and others, young Russians will want to play in the NHL because still it is the finest hockey in the world. It is going to take many years before the KHL will come up to this level. Hopefully, they will someday. But I think we just need to continue to communicate with each other. We need to talk more, we need to meet face to face more often; we need to communicate. If we continue to do that, we will work through some of these problems."

Dmitry Chesnokov's complete article is available by clicking here. Sphere: Related Content