stuff from Russia Aug 29th

various things jumped at me as I was looking for Mayorov news ...

http://www.allhockey.ru/news/35112/

AK Bars just signed Morozov and Zaripov to contract extensions that will see them with the team in the next five seasons.


http://www.allhockey.ru/news/35125/

SKA St. Petersburg have signed former ATL D Mark Popovic. The club was supposed to sign former ATL D Steve McCarthy earlier in the summer but coach Barry Smyth decided Popovic was a better fit for the team.

comment: McCarthy has since signed with KHL team Salavat.


http://www.allhockey.ru/news/35157/

Brylin was given captaincy of SKA St. Petersburg.


http://www.allhockey.ru/news/35127/

Tony Martensson interview

Says he had offers this summer from the Ducks, Leafs, and Canucks, but "as it turned out I had already had an agreement with AK Bars". Notes that he has no special memories from when he made the NHL last time [6 games with Anaheim in 03-04] but adds that he was very young then. he was Asked whether he'd like to go back to the NHL and says "No. Now my main task is to win a championship with AK Bars Kazan".

Comment: Classic 'plausible deniability' answer - a resolute no to appease the Russians, qualified by 'now' to leave the door open next year ... but at least he knows there is still interest in him, so if he wants to come back next summer, he can wait and not sign a new KHL contract.


http://www.allhockey.ru/news/35123/

The head of the IIHF, Rene Fazel, canceled a planned visit to a hockey festival in Minsk (Belarus), part of the IIHF's centennial celebration, so that he can focus on dealing with the KHL-NHL transfer disputes.

The article also mentions that as a result of the broken relationships between the two leagues, Minsk has been unable to obtain transfer documents from Canada for its players.

Comment: Minsk signed Bryan Muir from the Marlies and Mark Rycroft from Syrcause, as well as other Canadian players from European teams and American Jeff Giuliano from LA.


http://www.allhockey.ru/news/35128/

Here's a funny one. The Latvian Hockey Federation is threatening to forbid Latvia's top team, Dynamo Riga, from joining the KHL, demanding from the KHL a compensation equivalent to $500K for the loss of sponsorship deals, as sponsors like Samsung ditched the league to sign exclusive contracts with Dynamo Riga


link

Traktor Chelyabinsk have announced on their website that tomorrow (Saturday) they will sign Czech D Jan Platil to a two-year contract. He's already agreed to a jersey number (83)

Comment: Platil was reported to have signed with PHI on May 6th, but Holmgren, the NHLPA, and the Flyers media staff deny such a signing ever took place - according to the only source I could find on this, blogger Bill Meltzer on Eklund's site (link)

Thanks as always fzusher for the great info from Russia... much appreciated, keep it up. +1.

Yes, thumbs up for the info for sure.

There sure seems to be a lot of controversy swirling around KHL ever since it was announced.

Thanks again, your info is always greatly appreciated. +1.