KHL legionnaires are not expected at home – Sport – Kommersant
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The strongest hockey teams in Europe have decided to adhere to a unified policy towards the legionnaires of the Continental Hockey League (KHL) and refuse their services in the new season. Four national teams – Sweden, the Czech Republic, Finland and Latvia – promised not to call up the players who remained in the KHL clubs to the national team. A total of 12 hockey players will be sanctioned, including Amur defender Michal Jordan and CSKA goalkeeper Adam Reideborn. More than 90 players from these four countries terminated their contracts with KHL teams in the spring, in the midst of the last championship.
Today, the Swedish Hockey Association announced that it will not invite players from KHL clubs to the national team in the new season. “Thus, we send an important signal to hockey Sweden and the hockey world, because we are talking about our fundamental values,” said the head of the structure, Anders Larsson. Sweden has become the last major hockey power in Europe to support the trend to refuse the services of KHL legionnaires. Before her, a similar decision was made by three more teams – Czech and Finnish, as well as Latvian, who are among the grandees.
In fact, there are very few representatives of these countries, who, despite the warning of their national federations, remained in the KHL clubs.
12 hockey players get hit, and we are not talking about the leaders of their teams.
Sanctions will apply to five Swedes – Dynamo Moscow newcomer Jakob Lilja, Avtomobilist goalkeeper Johan Mattsson, Severstal defender Robin Press and two CSKA players – defender Fredrik Klasson and goalkeeper Adam Reideborn. But only one of them, Reideborn, played in the national team in top tournaments.
Among the four Czechs who remained in Russia, only the captain of Amur, Michal Jordan, looks like a serious loss for the national team. As part of the Czech national team at the last World Championships in Finland, he took bronze.
The rest of the players, who were of real value to the national teams of these countries, terminated their contracts with the KHL clubs in the spring, almost immediately after the start of the Russian special military operation. So, in March, Finnish legionnaires began to return to their homeland en masse (their total number exceeded forty). Among them, of course, are the stars of the Finnish national team, which won both the Beijing Olympics and the World Cup this year.
Their example was followed by the Swedes, who last season played for various clubs of the Continental Hockey League more than thirty: CSKA, for example, left Lukas Wallmark and Joakim Nordström, Metallurg lost Linus Hultstrom.
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