The National Hockey League has a new competitor from Russia. For all those interested in playing hockey on soil that is frozen for nine months a year their must be much celebration. The Russian Super League has been replaced by the Continental Hockey League. I think of this as kind of like Vladimir Putin moving from the communist party to the democratic Russian state.

The new leagues first attempt to establish validity was to try and poach players from NHL teams through backwater contracts. Although Chris Simon and John Grahame may have expressed interest in playing in the new league, I do not find the league to be that much of a threat. This the league that is replacing the number two league in the world. The National Hockey League has continued to be number despite all its problems.

A strike could not dethrone the league. A problem finding a national television contract could not take them down. If a year without play and a problem finding a television station to broadcast the league’s game could not tear down the sport in this sports-saturated continent then the league is here to stay.

The NHL has been its own worse enemy in this situation, by refusing to draft many Russian players for fear that they will not come over. This all stems from a poorly designed transfer agreement- that being a complete lack of a transfer agreement.

Pittsburgh Penguin star Evgeni Malkin has already turned down a contract that would pay him a ridiculous sum of money to go back to his homeland (12.5 million dollars a year), so I do not fear seeing Islanders like Mike Comrie, Bill Guerin, or Rick DiPietro leaving New York for Kiev, Moscow, or Irkutsk.

No, the NHL is safe, although if the new Russian league wants to take some of the New York Rangers away, I would not be to upset.

The following piece was not written by Patrick Hickey Jr.