NHL/KHL agreement not as significant as it may seem

From Jeff Klein of the NY Times:

All the two leagues agreed to in Zurich today (Thursday) was to continue the de facto arrangement they made several weeks ago — an arrangement given teeth by IIHF president and International Olympic Committee member Rene Fasel when he said last month that any federation that violated an existing contract would be barred from the Olympics.

Despite headlines that read “NHL, Russian league reach deal on player transfers” (National Post), “NHL, Russian league reach peace deal” (Yahoo news), and “NHL, Russian hockey league reach transfer agreement” (CTV.ca), nothing of the sort has actually happened.

Read the entire post from Slap Shot here.

Both sides seem set in their ways, which makes one think this dispute is far from over.