IIHF’s silence a bad sign for NHL

From Kevin Allen of USA Today:

The International Ice Hockey Federation’s decision not to take a stand in the Alexander Radulov case seems to eliminate the last long-shot hope the Nashville Predators had of keeping their young premium goal scorer.

According to the IIHF press release, a meeting of representatives of Belarus, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland ended with a consensus that Nashville’s complaint about Radulov walking away from his valid NHL contract to sign with the new Russian Super League should be resolved through legal action or arbitration.

Essentially, the IIHF investigated the case and decided it was better for the Russians and NHL to work it out themselves. By doing nothing, the IIHF have given the Continental Hockey League (KHL) a clear win.

Read the entire entry from Mucking and Grinding here.

Bill Daly is right, the facts all favor the NHL in a court decision but as Allen states, the Russians are probably not going to agree to an independent arbitrator.  So, the Predators are going to have to live with no Alexander Radulov this season and I bet the players are not too unhappy about that.