This.

While it's honorable that he's giving away his shot at attaining his dream to help his family back home...it all still sounds terribly fishy to me. The fact his father had the contract ready for him and lured him back under false pretences just doesn't sit right. I don't know, if your child is living so close to his dream, would you want to crush it? Don't all hockey players talk about the sacrifices they've all gone through to get where they are? I have never touched 150k myself in a family of four so I don't know... I don't personally know his situation concerning how much he supports them either. It's just all very weird.

And the Russian Mob have been involved in Russian hockey before...

This.

Something doesn't add up here. I know $150k isn't tons by professional player standards, but you can support a family on that easily. The questionable factor of course is how far that money goes (the exchange rate and subsequent cost of living). I'd imagine due to the economic conditions it would be favourable for him, but I don't understand economics that well so may be wrong on that. Also, was he making over 150k as a 15 year old kid (that's what the article seems to indirectly say)?


While it would be nice for the owners to fix this situation, it's going to have to come from the players. They need to get together and agree that no player gets ovre 9 million, lower the league minimum salary to 400k and lower the salary cap by 5-10% of league revenues. In turn, all players in the AHL would be able to make a salary of at least 250k.

just dust in the wind. he would be lucky to get the 7 d spot on any team in the NHL. So I say send him to Russia with love. He prob knew this and said I'll never make $$$ in NA. so why not let him cash in with some drug dealer Russian owners.

When that Russian League starts to falter and those players are lined up saying "sfjkls slfjlik fkdjlskdfj!" (that's Russian for "where's my effin money!") it won't be long before they're calling their NHL clubs and saying "ummm yeahhhhh, ............ I'd like to come back to the NHL. No hard feelings right?"

When that day comes it would be nice to see the NHL owners collectively shut the door on all of them for a good three years or so. Send a message for the next time players want to chase phantom contracts that promise everything under the sun.

Mark my words good citizens of Habville, this will in time come back to bite all of them on the *

Well this sucks...
we might have just lost a good prospect...

THIS????

If a family member is sick, then there's good reason to believe 150K wouldn't be enough. Here in Canada we have a great health care system, I doubt it's like that in Russia . Major surgeries and treatments can cost in the tens of thousands I hear.

?????

Or THAT.

It's basically another way of saying QFT. Just means that the poster agrees with the post he's replying to.

We should have traded that guy lol.

I know to most of us here that 150K/year sounds like a lot of money - and as a salary to support one person, it certainly is a substantial amount of money to make. But to support even a family of four, that is not a tremendous amount of money. And there is nothing in the TSN article which limits his family to his imeediate family. He could very easily be required to help aupport aunts, uncles, counsins,etc. and not to mention that he may come from an immediate family larger than 4 people.
Some of us may find it hard to believe that someone would give up their dream in order to help their family or even that the family would pressure their son to give up that dream in order to make a larger pay cheque but the fact of the matter is that it happens all across the planet. There is an understanding in certain cultures that you go to ends of the earth to help your family even if that requires supporting your own parents when you are a young boy. Not to mention that Russia is not exactly a wealthy country. Sure it has loads of millions and a wealthy nationalized natural gas/oil industry but that wealth does not tend to trickle down to the middle class. It's not hard to imagine Valenteno's family struggling to make ends meat if he was supporting them at the age of 15. I choose to give him the benefit of the doubt in this situation and wish he and his family well.

Ok, are you guys pulling my chain here or is "This" the equivalent of "bump"......not to mention "THAT"

I'm afraid to ask what QFT stands for but I'm guessing the F stands for a word not always used in common polite parlance!!

On Valentenko (to get back to topic.....sorry all!) I can see the family situation thing......I also think it is tough in Hamilton without any fellow Russians.......most here (AK, Perez, Grabs, etc etc) have struggled with language and culture but most have had at least one teammate to hang on to......the hockey dream is important but one's sanity, quality of life and family are equally important and it is possible the Habs made it clear to him he was way down the priority list!

Swansee, QFT means Quoted for Truth.

lol so what does this mean??? i dont get it how much u think he makes at his part time job valentenko was making what 150k a year?? comon

and tot he dude that said he cant live off 150k a year in a family of 4 wow i was in a family of 4 with like 22k a year we managed so dont give me that crap

in all seriousness guys he went for the cash not for his family just imagine it you are 21 and u are offered millions a free car woman and a free condo u take it man u can say hey ill do it for a few years improve my game then go back to the nhl as a ufa at a later date what he did was not that wrong just the way he did it had no class

Honestly, That is down right ignorant.

I think you are really dragging his character through the mud here, almost like you personally knew him or something along those lines. Truth be told, none of us know what he was thinking when he accepted this deal. However, we can see that he came over here and suffered here last year playing with only 1 other Russian once in a while. He learned english, he tryed to pay his dues. This says something about his character. That he wanted to be here. I think you have to admit, to leave your whole family, take a pay cut and move to a foriegn country that doesn't speak your language takes devotion. This tells me that his abrupt departure was not his choice. Regardless, this is only hockey, I wish him the best and still have a hope that we see him in the bleu, blanc et rouge some day.

The following prospects were ahead of Valetenko on the depth charts:

McDonough
Fischer
Torp
Emelin
Subban
Weber
Carle

He was never going to make the habs. He did what was in his best interests.

Not all of them were ahead of him. He was ahead of Torp, Subban and Emelin and pretty much tied with Fischer, and Carle. It's just blue-chipper McDo and potential pp quarterback Weber that were developping really faster than him.



Well said.

IMHO ....

He asks for a leave of absence to attend to family matters ... fine.
He then signs a very lucrative contract with a KHL team ... umm what?

Anything he claims after this regarding his family is suspect. It smells to high heaven that what he was really after was the dough. If the story he gave the Canadiens that he needed to attend to family matters was in fact true, then it's only reasonable to assume he would have discussed signing with the Dynamo with the Canadiens. They were blind sided, which strongly suggests that Pavel outright lied to get back to Russia because Dynamo was courting him. As to his contract, I'm sure the Habs would have been willing to buy him out or release him from it if he did indeed need to stay for his family.

REGARDLESS ... the fact that he turned his back on his contract should negate any future he was with the Canadiens. And he can rot in the KHL.

Well, with that said, I am ready to forgive Valentenko for any wrong-doings he may have been involved with during this whole escapade. Like some posters have mentioned, he wanted to be here, he came, he tried... Maybe it just wasn't meant to be. I think it would be easier to understand if the NHL was located in Europe and Canadiens/Americans had to move over there to play in the best league in the world. It wouldn't be so easy, I don't think. Whatever happened, it doesn't really matter now. He is in Russia, with an apparent three year contract, and I am sure Bob Gainey is going to keep it on the down-low no matter what the current situation is. We are lucky to have other great young defensive prospects in our system. If it is the last we ever see of Valentenko is North America then, "Farewell, comrade!" Good luck with your career in Russia, and thanks for giving it a try here in North America, anyways!

The following is why we should be very annoyed by Pavel's choice to sign with Dynamo

http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sport...y_be_no-brainer


Last week, Montreal Canadiens prospect Pavel Valentenko returned to Russia ostensibly to take care of some personal business. But once he got there, it turned out that the business he was looking to transact was to sign a three-year contract with Dynamo Moscow, one of the premier teams in the KHL. Though Valentenko told Sovetsky Sport that he had informed Montreal of his decision to play in the KHL ahead of time, the news seemed to come as a surprise to the team's front office.

Now another Canadian NHL team finds itself over a similar barrel. Ottawa Senators prospect Alexander Nikulin, scratched from the Binghamton Senators lineup on Saturday night, has demanded that the team trade him by Monday, otherwise he's headed back to Russia where he'll presumably be readily employed by one of many eager KHL teams.


I predict we'll see fewer and fewer players drafted out of Russia in the coming years.

My only hope (as well as my only worry) is that something doesn't happen to Valentenko, like what happened to Cherepanov...I highly doubt it will, but one never knows. I wish him all the best.

Well absolutely, if Gainey and Co. are ever faced with a decision between a Russian and non-Russian blue chip, its hard to see how an experience such as this will not weigh heavily on their minds until such a time that the two leagues formulate a type of exchange system seen most readily in FIFA.

As for Valentenko, I have never nor will I ever fault an athlete for taking the money. Its a complete lottery out there, with the possibility of injury or the very real possibility that you simply will not succeed at a certain level of a sport. If someone hands you a check. You take it. Sure you can draw up scenarios where players ignore club allegiances to sign with a lesser club or a competitor for slightly more money. And as fans, we have a right to be bitter in these instances. But when we are talking about kids, and the possibility that you will amount to nothing or the possibility of signing a signficant contract, money talks, and he did what I would have done. Walk. Its not the gutsy move, but it is the prudent one.

good grief. what is going on here?!

what saddens me most about these scenarios is that it seems like these young guys have no idea what they're doing...

what a disaster.

we already saw the first signs that nhl teams were scared off with cherepanov. guaranteed these kids won't be drafted in the future and sadly, i don't have that much faith that the khl will last.




i don't agree with you. yes, it's hard to fault athletes for taking the money given the length of their careers and the risks involved (not that i haven't done it when it's the difference between 5 and 7mil however) but isn't this scenario different? sign with whoever you want for however much you choose when you're not already signed by another club but don't break your contract to follow the cash and leave your club under false pretenses.

in valentenko's case, i was forgiving and saddened by the reports that he had been supporting his family since he was 15 (in a country with exceptional poverty as well as exceptional wealth i can very well believe it) and i thought he did what was necessary. i can't and won't fault him for that. but in the above quote he's implying the habs knew he was leaving to sign with dynamo which counters everything that's been reported...is he lying? is the story as fishy as others seem to believe?

Glad somebody else picked up on this. I think the "I'm going home to take care of my family" is his attempt to not burn his bridges. But that quote shows his true motives were underhanded as the Habs had no clue he was actually going to Russia to sign with the KHL.

To me its splitting hairs, we are talking about a kid who has been playing the game of hockey since he could walk, who lives 5,000 miles from his family, and who, lets face it, probably does not have the business acumen you may want when you are out signing contracts. Was the way he handled it "fishy" (the adopted word of this forum)? Sure. What should we expect from a Russian kid in his shoes? Not much more.

I fully understand if some people want to castrate the guy, or call him out for being shady. I think we are talking about a young adult who made a decision well within his bounds to make. It may be the easier road, it may have gone against what we all deem fair play and contract boundaries, but the fact is, there was already a precedent set for this type of stuff in Radulov, and his advisors probably told him that he wouldnt get much opposition from the Habs brass, which it turns out he isnt getting.

that's a fair point. although we have no idea how the habs feel about the scenario you're right, there hasn't been any opposition other than a bit of name calling in this thread.

the radulov case is still under review as there is a dispute as to whether or not his contract was signed before there was an agreement in place with the iihf - which there is now. i wonder if valentenko even knows that he can no longer play for his country in iihf tournaments. i guess the point is he probably doesn't care and made the decision he thought best for himself and his family. i just can't help but wonder if these players are taken advantage of by the people they are supposed to trust because they don't have the 'acumen' to decide for themselves (i can say the same about a lot of young north american players also).

120,000 dollars american does not allow your family to live well in Russia if you are not part of the right group of people folks.
It is not the same as North America over there......when he says he left to help his family, I believe him.

That happens to kids in North America as well. I'd say there is a slightly better chance of saving them here, but Cherapanov may have died just as easily in North America.

this story is getting weirder (do i have to say 'fishier'?) by the minute:

The Valentenko story gets weird

I somehow missed this (don't you know I read every single word written on the Internet?), but this whole Pavel Valentenko defection episode is now officially a lot weirder than it was when it started.

Eric McErlain, who blogs both for The Sporting News and AOL Fanhouse, wrote this entry on Friday. For those too lazy to click the link, McErlain asked a Sovetsky Sport reporter to translate an interview Valentenko gave to the Russian newspaper after signing his contract with Moscow Dynamo of the Kontinental Hockey League.

Valentenko tells the newspaper that he wanted to be closer to his family and that "Montreal let me go without a problem, they were very considerate." Oh, is that why the Canadiens suspended him as soon as Dynamo released the news of his signing on its web site, but not before?

The Canadiens and the Hamilton Bulldogs were under the impression he was going to Russia to deal with some family issues, not to completely disregard his contractual obligations here to sign with another professional hockey team.

The young defenceman also says he's only signed through the end of the current season, and that he may be back in Montreal next year. Later in the same article, Mikhail Golovkov, president of Dynamo, says the contract is for three years, which is exactly what was written on the team's web site when the news was released.

Obviously, Valentenko doesn't have all of his facts straight. For one thing, the chances of him being back in Montreal are slim to none, with a very strong leaning towards none.

The youngster's confusion does lend credence to his North American agent Rolland Hedges' version of the story, which is that Valentenko's contract with Dynamo had already been negotiated by his father before he even arrived in Moscow. If the kid doesn't even know how long he's signed for, it's pretty safe to assume he wasn't very involved in the contract negotiation.

Another interesting aspect of the Sovetsky Sport article, at least as its translated, is that Dynamo coach Vladimir Vujtek - interestingly enough a former Habs prospect who was traded to the Oilers in the deal that brought Vincent Damphousse to Montreal - knows nothing about Valentenko and needed to check out some video of him. Has anyone in the Dynamo organization ever seen this kid play as a professional, or did he grab this contract on reputation alone?

In any case, his reputation in North America has taken an irrevocable blow.

courtesy of the daily hab-it.

he doesn't even know how long he's signed for?! why sign a kid you know nothing about? bizarre.

i feel sorry for the kid, especially if he thinks he'll be back in montreal when clearly others have different plans for him.

Here we go with all the different stories. I'm sure a few more will pop up in the near future but from what I have read so far this is what I see:

-The Canadiens were told he wanted to go home for family matters.
-While back there he signs with Dynamo.
-His agent, Rolland Hedges, protecting his client, tells the story of how his dad had already had the deal lined up for him to come back to... How he had supported his family since he was 15...(What did we expect him to say? "Yes, my client has gone AWOL."
-Whether the Habs were aware of his intent or not they had no other option but to suspend him for not honouring his contract.

I hope the IIHF does the right thing and suspends him from playing in any international competitions.

If his new Dynamo contract does indeed list the final two seasons as "option years", then we have a chance to improve our current position.
If Pavel plays this year in Moscow, he could still choose to return next season, although I strongly believe his relationship with the Canadiens is over.
Considering he chose freely to come here in the first place, and that he excelled in his brief stint, you can not rule out his return.
However, if he does come back, Montreal will still have to trade his rights ala Grabvoski.

I wouldn't read too much into the Habs suspending his contract, I would presume that is standard procedure so that they don't have to keep paying him!

Watch Pavel come back at the start of next season. I just have a good feeling.

He's going to make the lineup also next year! woot!

Number 55...PA-VEL VALEN-TEN-KO!!!

If Pavel comes back next year, it will only be with a guarantee that he is not sent to the minors.
Montreal can not, and will not guarantee him a position next September.
So the only remaining option is to trade him if and when he returns.

Exactly, you basically have to suspend him in this situation.

Well, whatever the story is, he's not here and he won't play for the bulldogs this year.

Who knows what went on behind closed doors or during long distance phone calls. The Habs might know everything going on, on the other hand, they might not. Either way, he had to be suspended, it doesn't give us back much, but it does give us a few extra to play with.

IMO the organization wouldnt suspend if they knew about the family issuse, thats why they let him go, they had no idea that he was going over to sign a contract.

They aren't going to keep paying him when he's signed another contract. The reason is irrelevant, if he goes AWOL, especially considering he's signed with another league, you suspend him. I'm not sure, but if may even be league rules that you need to suspend players who don't report.

i know they wont pay him when he signed another contract, but what im saying is that they wouldnt have done that if in fact he did go over for family issues.

We will not know for sure unless Bob makes a statement.

it just seems really strange that nothing has been said.

if they don't suspend him, they have no choice


How do you know how Gillette wants to spend his money? My guess is he doesn't consider it a good investment to pay 150k to a guy who is making probably well over a million in the KHL.

I hope too see valatenko play in the nhl some day...

Quite a start for Pavel on his new team.
He has no points, Dynamo has lost every game since his arrival, and he didn't dress for their last game.
He might be back sooner than you think.

Question.

Do we want him back?

Seriosuly, if he's playing that bad in Russia, if he played that badly at our training camp, and if he wasn't spinning heads in Hamilton... Perhaps he's just not THAT good.

He's probably not getting points because:

a) points are even harder for a defensive defenceman to get their even than here because they don't give secondary assists.
he probably doesn't get much ice time and is getting scratched.

He probably doesn't get much icetime and is getting scratched because the team there already has their D corps set, and rookies never get much icetime anyway I hear. They probably just signed him for propoganda purposes anyway, not because they really need him.

We should invite him back, then force him to re-pay his plane fare from last month, and then deport him.