The Russian Evolution

Hockey League Bounces Back, Lures Some Countrymen Home From the NHL

ODINTSOVO, Russia -- The practices come fast and furious, twice a day, lots of hard skating with a few hours of sleep in between. Viktor Tikhonov is getting his national team ready for the world hockey championship and he drives the players with the intensity of an old Red Army colonel.

But as the squads of players in green, yellow and red practice jerseys raced across the ice and slapped shots toward the goal, the legendary Soviet-era Olympic coach returning from retirement had a few weapons he wouldn't have had just a few years ago -- some of the country's star players freshly home from the United States and the NHL.

"I haven't skated so hard in 11 years," former Philadelphia Flyer Dmitri Yushkevich, the bridge of his nose still bright red from a tough hit, said with a weary smile before heading out for another practice the other day. But his homeland made it worth his while to return in November. "The money," he said, "is pretty good here."

After years of decay, Russian hockey is back. Like the country itself, the popular Russian sport has thrown off the economic doldrums of the 1990s and, flush with cash, rebuilt itself into a power player on the international scene. New stadiums, better equipment and more talented coaches have all marked a Russian renaissance on ice. And most of all, fatter contracts have begun to lure the country's NHL experts back home to the Russian Super League.

After Russia's economic collapse in 1998, hockey players were signing for $10,000 or $15,000. Top players now can get $500,000 or $1 million or more, contracts all the more lucrative because of the low cost of living and Russia's 13 percent flat income tax rate.

"This is the second-[best] league in the world now behind the NHL," said Valery Zelepukin, who played in the Stanley Cup finals for the New Jersey Devils in 1995 and now skates for SKA St. Petersburg. "It's good money here. It's not bigger than the NHL, but in Russia life is cheaper than in America."

Cheaper than in America but better than in Russia of the past decade. In the last four years, the economy has expanded by nearly 40 percent, the stock market has grown five times bigger and incomes are on the rise. New shopping malls and restaurants spring up every week in Moscow and increasingly in provinces long left behind.

"If you really think about it," said Dmitri Goryachkin, an NHL agent, "this is not a change in hockey. It is a change in every aspect of Russian life. Ten years ago and 15 years ago, there were shortages in the stores, no food and long lines for gas. Everything is much different now."

The money pouring into hockey has helped to spur a new golden age of young, highly skilled Russian forwards. Alexander Ovechkin, 18, who skates for Dynamo Moscow, is virtually a lock to be the first player chosen in the NHL draft in June. The Washington Capitals currently hold the No. 1 pick.

The best young Russian players such as Ovechkin still aim for the NHL, and many of those returning tend to be older and less able to find spots on North American teams. But the reverse migration both reflects the resurgence of the Russian league and helps perpetuate it. About 50 Russians have returned to play here in the last two or three years, estimates Igor Rabiner, a sportswriter who has a monthly column profiling returning NHL Russians for Moscow's Sport-Express newspaper.

Among those who have come back are Oleg Tverdovsky, who helped the Devils win the Stanley Cup last year, and former Capitals Dmitri Khristich and Sergei Berezin. And they've had an immediate impact. With Tverdovsky's help, Avangard Omsk won the Russian league championship earlier this month.

If the NHL shuts down because of a lockout next season, even more will return, possibly bringing European or other non-Russians with them. Among those making plans to play in the Russian league are ex-Capitals Jaromir Jagr and Sergei Gonchar, and Toronto forward Alexander Mogilny. In anticipation, the Russian league has lifted its cap on foreigners playing for each team.

"I think this is going to be the strongest league in the world for next season if there is a lockout," said Goryachkin, whose IMG firm represents Jagr and Gonchar as well as a host of young Russians, including Capitals rookie Alexander Semin. Another agent said NHL Players Association head Bob Goodenow recently advised agents to prepare clients for 22 months without NHL hockey if the union and owners fail to approve a new collective bargaining agreement by mid-September.

Slava Kozlov, who left Russia in 1991 for the Detroit Red Wings and now plays for the Atlanta Thrashers, is among those with an eye on his homeland if the NHL shuts down. "I am hoping there is going to be a season," he said, "but if not I think if they offer me good money I think I am going to go play in Russia."