“Sibir” expressed his disappointment with the decision of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) to sanction the club for violating the limit on foreign players. This has been reported official website club.
“In conditions where Russian hockey is excluded from the system of international competition, officially complying with the now irrelevant Legal Rules of the IIHF, without taking into account the interests of the hockey player – who has expressed his desire to play as a citizen of Russia. It is a blatant injustice for his hometown and the club that, after difficult negotiations, managed to return Fedor to his homeland.
The young Russian defender, who performed successfully in the first half of the season, was actually deprived of his professional rights in his own country. “This precedent raises serious doubts that it will contribute to solving the task recently outlined by the Russian President himself to counter the departure of young players abroad, including the return of those who have left earlier.”
On January 17, the KHL deprived the Novosibirsk club of four points for violating the foreign player limit. In the first four games of this season, Sibir fielded four foreign players on the ice: Canadians Andy Andreoff, Taylor Beck, Trevor Murphy and Russian Fedor Gordeev, who has US sports citizenship. The results of all relevant matches were annulled; individual player statistics will remain unchanged.
Due to the loss of four points, Siberia exited the play-off zone. The Siberians are in ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings with 51 points.
Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik is ahead of Sibir in additional indicators. Metallurg Magnitogorsk ranks first in the Eastern Conference with 74 points. Omsk Avangard ranks second with 73 points. In third place is Salavat Yulaev from Ufa with 66 points.
Formerly American ice hockey player compared NHL and KHL.