CSKA’s signing of an agreement with hockey goalkeeper Ivan Fedotov led to an international scandal

The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) has registered the contract of goalkeeper Ivan Fedotov with CSKA. The seemingly routine action caused a loud scandal that could potentially return the relationship between the KHL and the National Hockey League (NHL) to an era when the two structures simply ignored the contractual obligations of players to the clubs of the other side and poached players from each other. The thing is that Fedotov, according to the NHL, has a valid agreement with the Philadelphia Flyers. CSKA have a different opinion. Given the much greater financial potential of the North American championship, it cannot be ruled out that promising Russian players will again begin to “run away” across the ocean. True, it is no less likely that everything will remain as it is. Simply because there are no documents obliging the parties to respect each other’s contracts. The memorandum of understanding governing this issue was terminated at the initiative of the NHL.

On Saturday, the KHL registered the contract of 26-year-old goalkeeper Ivan Fedotov (as part of the Russian national team in February 2022, he won the silver medal of the 2022 Games, and with CSKA in the spring of the same year he won the Gagarin Cup) with the army team. The agreement is calculated until the end of the 2024/25 season. According to unofficial information, Fedotov will receive a total of 105 million rubles from it. Formally, the league’s routine action has caused a real storm in the hockey world, threatening to reduce relations between the KHL and the NHL to an open confrontation.

Recall that Ivan Fedotov signed a one-year contract with the Philadelphia Flyers NHL club back in May 2022 and was supposed to go to the United States at the end of the KHL championship. However, on July 1, he was detained in St. Petersburg for evading service in the armed forces and was soon sent to a military unit. The goalkeeper intended to challenge the actions of the draft board in court, but in the end he withdrew the application and served the prescribed year in the army. In the NHL, what happened to the player was commented without much emotion. League Vice President Bill Daley noted that the NHL was monitoring the situation, and reminded that Philadelphia had the right to either terminate or freeze the contract with the Russian. Philadelphia, as it turned out, chose the freeze option, which in many ways gave rise to the current situation.

Mr. Daly believes that after the freeze on Fedotov’s contract expired, it has come into effect again and now extends to the 2023/24 season. The press service of Philadelphia reported about this back in mid-June. “We have confirmed to the KHL that Fedotov’s current contract with Philadelphia binds him to the team for the 2023/24 season. To the extent that he plays in the KHL, this will be a violation of his existing contract in the NHL,” Mr. Daley told TASS.

In CSKA, the situation is seen completely differently. “I think that the league acted very competently in this situation, having dealt with the situation in detail and consistently. A scrupulous legal examination of the NHL documents was carried out, after which a substantiated, point-by-point position of the KHL was written, which was sent to the address, Igor Esmantovich, president of HC CSKA, told Match TV. The most important thing here is that Fedotov’s contract with Philadelphia was concluded for the 2022/23 season and was not further extended, that is, when signing an agreement with CSKA, Ivan did not have any legally justified restrictions. Summing up this situation, I can state that the KHL did everything professionally and clearly. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, since we all worked together in this situation,” said Igor Esmantovich.

Both sides, oddly enough, have reason to consider themselves right. Philadelphia may indeed believe that it had the right to extend the contract, since Fedotov did not fulfill it due to force majeure (the actions of the state are such). But CSKA is also right. Indeed, formally, there really is no contract for the 2023/24 season signed by Fedotov. Until the spring of last year, such situations were avoided thanks to the existence of a memorandum of understanding between the KHL and the NHL. The leagues signed it back in 2010 and pledged to mutually respect the contracts of the clubs they are members of. Remarkably, the catalyst for the signing of the agreement was not another unauthorized departure of one of the Russians to the NHL, but the transfer of Alexander Radulov from the Nashville Predators to Salavat Yulaev in 2008, despite his contract with the American team. As soon as the NHL realized that its clubs could also face unplanned losses of top hockey players, the leagues almost immediately entered into a gentleman’s agreement to avoid such situations, and then formalized it.

However, as Bill Daly stated, the memorandum is no longer valid. The agreement, which had previously been repeatedly extended, was terminated last spring, after the start of events in Ukraine, at the initiative of the NHL, which issued a directive to reduce contacts with the Russian side to a minimum. That is, legally, the parties returned to the situation that existed before 2010.

In the KHL, apparently, they are counting on the fact that the story with Fedotov will not have global consequences. “There is no physically signed memorandum between the leagues, while both sides continue to comply and respect the contracts of the players, exchange e-mails on work issues and be guided by its standards in their work as a partner,” the KHL said in a statement. It also states that the Fedotov case is not covered by the (non-existent) memorandum.

How justified such expectations may become clear quite soon. The same “Philadelphia”, considering itself the injured party, may well try to get one of the best young players in Russia, Matvey Michkov, whom it drafted under the seventh number at the end of June, before the deadline. His contract with SKA expires only at the end of the 2025/26 season, but since neither verbal nor written agreements are already in effect, you can try to get him early.

Alexander Petrov