More Malkin

Defections in hockey are nothing new, and we saw our fair share of them in the early 1990s — most notably with the trio of Sergei Fedorov, Alex Mogilny and Pavel Bure. The difference then was that Russians playing in the NHL was sort of a new frontier — a great unknown, if you will. At the time, defectors like Mogilny left as much to escape an oppressive regime as to play hockey in the NHL. (His first few games saw Mogilny looking pale as a ghost as he feared for the safety of his parents given the hostility back home.)

Malkin, on the other hand, is more of a modern-day athletic equivalent: He's after the money, the fame, the fortune. His parents didn't endorse their son's apparent defection — or even know about it.

All accounts are Malkin was disgruntled with the Russian hockey federation's failure to sign a tranfer agreement and get him to his preferred destination — Pittsburgh — as soon as possible. He's also earned himself a reputation as a bit of an impetuous fellow, and this move is just one in a growing line of curious decisions.

There really isn't anything new to report about the disappearance of Evgeni Malkin from his RSL team training camp in Finland, but this passage from the latest AP dispatch caught my eye:

"We all are really shocked by his departure and we will take legal actions against the NHL club Penguins from Pittsburgh," Metallurg general director Gennady Velichkin told Itar-Tass news agency. "Americans like to speak about democracy and teach the whole world how to live but engage in sport terrorism and simply steal people."

Gotta love how the Americans always get blamed. From what I've read, Malkin escaped with the help of a Canadian visa.

Speaking of his whereabouts, speculation has centered upon Toronto, where his agents, Pat Brisson and J.P. Barry, have an auxiliary office and where one Russian tabloid reported that a fellow resembling Malkin had been spotted.