Dynamo Moscow Situation Resolved

As reported on The Hockey Show a few weeks back, the situation in the KHL with Moscow Dynamo's ownership group was ugly. Players were owed salary monies, the owners were reportedly bankrupt and trying to sell the team, and the takeover that happened saw the new owners of the club refuse to honour any debts accumulated by the old owners. In short, we had a bit of a gong show on our hands. Today, however, Alexander Ovechkin's KHL club of choice finally saw a resolution passed down to them by the KHL Disciplinary Committee as players had appealed for their contracts to be dissolved since they weren't being honoured.

As per the release from the KHL today,

Today, the KHL Disciplinary Committee, as well as the Joint Disciplinary Chamber of the FHR and the KHL, reviewed applications of hockey players from the Dynamo ANO for the status of "Unlimited Free Agent" due to the club's failure to fulfill its contractual obligations.

At the meeting of the Disciplinary Committee of the KHL, 13 applications from hockey players of the ANO OHC "Dynamo" (Moscow) were considered, which had a unilateral contract. Following the results of the meeting, with regard to hockey players Ansel Galimov, Maxim Karpov, Denis Kokarev, Semyon Kokuev, Martins Karsums, Andrei Kuteykin, Artem Podshendalov, Matt Robinson, Alexander Rybakov, Yakov Rylov and Alexei Sopin, it was decided to terminate the contract and assign the status of "Unlimited free agent" .

With regard to hockey players Yegor Dugin and Daniil Tarasov, who had the status "Fixed for the Club (availability of qualification proposal)," it was decided to assign the status of "Unlimited free agent".

At the meeting of the Joint Disciplinary Chamber FHR and the KHL, 29 applications from hockey players of Dinamo (Moscow), which had a bilateral contract, were reviewed. Following the meeting with respect to hockey players Andrei Alekseev, Andrei Biryukov, Mikhail Bitsadze, Vladimir Bryukvin, Artemy Gryazev, Egor Zaitsev, Ivan Igumnov, Viktor Kornyakov, Klim Kostin, Alexander Kuznetsov, Georgy Kuznetsov, Alexander Osin, Kirill Pilipenko, Alexei Maklyukov, Dmitry Raiko , Dmitry Sidlyarov, Alexander Sevostyanov, Artem Fedorov, Maxim Chuvilov, Dmitry Shevchenko and Ilya Shipov decided to terminate the contract and assign the status of "Unlimited free agent . "

With respect to hockey players Ilya Baranov, Ivan Bocharov, Artem Volkov, Vladislav Efremov, Andrei Mironov, Stanislav Kondratiev, Alexander Petunin and Maxim Solovyov, who had the status of "Fixed for the Club (availability of qualification proposal)", it was decided to assign the status of "Unlimited free agent".

In other words, there are now 42 players who are free agents as Moscow Dynamo's hold on them through a contractual basis is no more. Some of the names are significant while other will probably find new homes in the KHL. Reportedly, the majority of the 42 players will sign on with the new ownership group to remain as part of Dynamo Moscow, but under the terms of new deals.

Of the names that should be noted, Klim Kostin is one that should make fans of the St. Louis Blues happy. Kostin was the first-round pick of the Blues in this year's NHL Entry Draft, and the 18 year-old will mostly sign a deal with the Blues later this week. Denis Kokarev is an interesting free agent since he was third in team scoring last season with 28 points, and Maxim Karpov should attract interest as he finished with the second-best goal-scoring total with 12 markers. Needless to say, there are some decent players who could help some clubs out in a big way if they were looking to get out of the Dynamo system.

As one noted member of the media wrote,

It simply cannot be overstated what a Mickey Mouse org the #KHL is. The Dynamo debacle is a cautionary tale for anyone mulling a move there.

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) July 4, 2017

Do your homework if you're thinking about heading to Russia to play hockey, folks.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!