KHL, NHL, Russian Prospects and Team Russia

Florida Panthers' prospect Sergei Gaiduchenko has been traded to CSKA Moscow prior the 2010 KHL Entry Draft in exchange of a first round pick.

Gaiduchenko, 21, spent the last year with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, playing 20 regular season games as back up of Georgi Gelashvili. His contract run out on Aprl 30st and wasn't renewed by Lokomotiv, thus making him a RFA. As he's going to join CSKA, most likely he won't transfer to the Panthers this summer.

Read also:
- Sergei Gaiduchenko: "You can't judge me by one game only"
- Sergei Gaiduchenko: I have a chance to move on as Florida drafted me

Legendary goalkeeper Dominik Hasek signed a one year deal in the KHL with Spartak Moscow.

"I'm happy to be in Moscow. I think that the both sides will benefit from this agreement," said Hasek to Rossiya-2.

His salary is reported to be around $600,000.

"I know what Hasek is capable of. We did not sign a jersey with his name, we signed Hasek himself," said Spartak's head coach Milos Riha to Rossiya-2.

Hasek, 45, has recently won the Czech Extraliga champions title with Pardubice.

The Dominator, who has two Stanley Cups and six Vezina Trophies under his belt, will soon join Spartak in order to prepare for the 2010-11 season.

On June 4th the second ever KHL Entry Draft has been held. With the first overall pick, Sibir Novosibirsk picked forward Dmitry Yashkin, who plays for Slavia Prague in the Czech Republic.

KHL teams choosen a total of 188 players from 13 countries during the seven rounds of the draft. Three selections have been voided as they were players with an NHL contract. They are John Tavares (Lokomotiv Yarloslavl), Philip Larsen (Sibir Novosibirsk) and Mikael Backlund (CSKA Moscow).

Finn defenseman Sami Vatanen went second overall, whith the third selection being Dmitry Ismagilov, picked up by Amur Khabarovsk. Goalie Michael Vishnevetsky was the first North American player picked, by Spartak Moscow.

Teams could use a draft pick and protect their own junior players, and many teams choosed to act this way. Protected players are listed with an asterisk.

The International Scouting Services announced its final rankings for the upcoming 2010 NHL Entry Draft.

Vladimir Tarasenko, playing for Sibir of the KHL, is the highest ranked European, having the 4th spot in the rankings.

There are three more Russian prospects in the Top 30, they are:

14. Alexander Burmistrov (OHL, Barrie Colts)
19. Evgeny Kuznetsov (KHL, Traktor Chelyabinsk)
24. Stanislav Galiev (QJMHL, Saint John Sea Dogs)

The notorious Kirill Kabanov has fallen out of the Top 30.

On the 31st of May the official Lokomotiv site announced signing for a two-year contract Jori Lehtera, the 22-year old forward from Finland, who lead this past season the SM-League in points.

Today, on the first of June the official site of the St. Lois Blues announced signing Lehtera to an Entry Level Contract.

“Jori had an excellent year this past season as he led the entire Finish League in points,” said Blues' President John Davidson to NHL.com. “Our scouts are very high on him and expect him to be a solid NHL player in the future.”

This signing came just two weeks after the KHL and the NHL signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

According to a sports writer from Finland (@tomppaaax), the Blues signed him to maintain the rights and Lehtera will spend the next two years playing for Lokomotiv.

Today the Russian Hockey Federation announced that the team coaches Vyacheslav Bykov and Igor Zakharkin will continue working with the Russian National team.

"Their work with the team was found to be satisfactory," said Vladislav Tretiak to Sovetskiy Sport. "Soon we will meet to discuss the details of the new contract."

This season was very unsuccessful for Russia as it suffered two major losses: in the Olympics' quarterfinal against Canada (3:7) and in the World Championship final against the Czech Republic (1:2).

Habs' prospect Alexei Emelin, 23, declared to Sovietskiy Sport v Tatarstane (via sports.ru) that he'll think about the NHL only next year.

Alexei Emelin: "I'm under contract with Ak Bars Kazan for the next season. I'll think about the NHL next year."

Recently Emelin has been awarded with Best Defenseman of the KHL Finals honor and skated in the 2010 World Championship in Germany.

Russian newspaper Sport-Express is reporting that Dominik Hasek, 45, is close to signing with Spartak Moscow of the KHL.

According to Sport-Express, Hasek has already started training for the next season and will arrive shortly in Moscow to sign a contract. Hasek will be tearing up the KHL next season, that's for sure. Go ahead and place a bet on this in any sportsbook.

"Don't look at his age - Hasek is still one of the best goalies in the World," said Spartak head coach Milos Riha to the newspaper.

During his career in the NHL, Hasek recorded 81 shutouts having a 92.2% saving percentage.

Soon to be 22-years-old Yuri Alexandrov has been signed by the Boston Bruins of the NHL to a two-year contract, as reported by Capgeek.com.

Alexandrov had a career season this year in the KHL with Severstal Cherepovets, with 21 points (five goals and 16 assists) in 56 regular season games.

In the past Alexandrov skated with team Russia on the international stage in two WJCs (2007 and 2008) and in one U18 WJC (2006). Most likely the young defenseman will start the season with the Providence Bruins of the AHL.

After the 2-1 loss to Czech Republic in the 2010 World Championship in Germany, Vyacheslav Bykov gave an interview to the popular Russian website Sovietsky Sport. Bykov stated that the sixty percent of today's roster will be playing in the 2014 Olympics, talked about his future with the Russian national team, tried to analyze the reasons of the defeat and also talked about the foreigners policy within the KHL.

As reported on the official Avangard Omsk's web site, Roman Cervenka signed a two years deal with the KHL team and thus won't sign with the Toronto Maple Leafs of the NHL.

Cervenka is a natural center who oddly enough has never been drafted in the NHL. His strong play in the latest couple of seasons put him under the lights and the Toronto Maple Leafs were thought favorites to sign him by most North American media outlets like ESPN or TSN.

But most likely Roman Cervenka, 24, preferred to play side-to-side with Jaromir Jagr.

Team Czech Republic won the Gold Medal in the 2010 WC Finals.
The Czechs prevailed 2-1 after an early goal by Jakub Klepis assisted by Jaromir Jagr and a marker from Tomas Rolinek late in the second period. Pavel Datsyuk cut down the Czech advantage with a third period goal, but Bykov's team didn't manage to revert the score. Surely this wasn't the best season for Team Russia.