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Posted on 01/26/2011 9:09:19 AM PST by rahbert
The Islanders took the only reasonable route yesterday concerning Evgeni Nabokov, suspending the claimed goalie for the remainder of the NHL season.
The 35-year-old goalie refused to report to the Islanders after the team claimed him on Thursday, an event that was not predicted by Nabokov or his agent, Don Meehan, when they originally agreed to a one-year deal with the Red Wings.
But because the former All-Star and Vezina Trophy finalist started this season playing for St. Petersburg of the Russian KHL, he was forced to clear waivers before reporting to Detroit.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/islanders/shun_and_done_BsXamnac6btcndp0uuMjYP#ixzz1CA6xB6Xy
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
All he had to do was hang in there for the 2nd half of the season after which, he'd become a free agent.
From the Red Wings to the Islanders, talk about going from the penthouse to the outhouse.
How the once mighty franchise has fallen...
Sometimes the dice come up “Snake Eyes”
Hockey ping!
He is now Islander property? Or does he pull the same stunt of playing in KHL and then having to clear waivers again?
I’m confused, if Detroit owned his contract, why didn’t they pick him up?
Funny - Nabokov never set foot in Nassau nor ever played for them, yet he is “suspended” - a technicality, I suppose, for salary-cap and roster rules.
As a second note - NHL teams are getting away from Russians for just this reason. They just don’t think like, or play like teammates, North Americans. The Sabres, for one, have had an unspoken policy that they generally would not bring on any more Russians. Recruit those Saskatchewan farmboys from the WHL instead!
I think the Russian Mob has their hooks in a lot of the Russian players.
League rules require he be exposed to waivers before playing for the team that signed him (in this case the Wings), since he had played professionally in another league (in this case the KHL).
He is officially an Islander, like it or not.
The Ilanders claimed him off of waivers a day after he agreed (but did not sign) to a 1 year contract with Detroit.
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Now he’s on double secret probation like Radulov!
He probably knows his career is just about over and he may not be back in the NHL next season anyway. He may have tried this tactic to pressure the Islanders into trading his rights to Detroit.
That’s okay, Kevin Poulin has shown himself to be an outstanding goaltender. I think his only problem against the Penguins was he needed to shut down his 5-hole. If he can successfully do that in every game he plays, he’ll be real hard to score against.
Two Russians who immediately come to mind as players who were awesome "teammates" in the North American mold were Igor Larionov (one of the first Soviets to play in the NHL in the late 1980s) and Sergei Brylin. Larionov was a legitimate star for a number of teams, while Brylin played in obscurity for the New Jersey Devils from 1995 up until a couple of years ago. Brylin was notable because he was one of only 3 or 4 players who played on all three Stanley Cup teams for New Jersey (1995, 2000 and 2003), and because he was a perennial winner of the team's "Unsung Hero" award given to the best teammate behind the scenes.
I suspect Vladislav Tretiak would have been a great "team player" as well in the NHL, based on everything I've read about him. He's one of the most highly respected players you'll find on the international stage.
It seems like too many of today’s Russian players demand that they be held to a different standard in the NHL these days, using the KHL as a safety net. Two that I can think of are Nicolai Zherdev (a head case) and Nikita Filatov (a wimp who didn’t like Hitch yelling at him.)
Unfortunate rebound - Isle’s D need to clear some space.
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