July 29 is on the calendar, and Amur has not yet resolved the issue with the captain of last season’s team, striker Ivan Nikolishin. The 27-year-old hockey player’s contract is up, but the Khabarovsk club still holds the rights to the player, as the striker is a restricted free agent.
The story, as they say, began with the fact that the Khabarovsk club refused to pay for Ivan’s operation, which was done in Germany.
Ivan Nikolishin talks about himself:
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“I would like to see ‘B-2’ or ‘Spleen’ on the club’s anniversary.” Great conversation with the leader of “Amur”
“The club had no right or opportunity to pay for Iván’s operation in Germany. We offered to pay for it in any Russian clinic at the player’s choice. He decided to go abroad and issued a written waiver of any claim against the club in this regard. The document is in our archive. The statements of respected journalists that the Club promised to pay for the operation later according to the checks and other documents provided by Iván have nothing to do with reality”, commented on this information the general manager of the Tigers, Vadim Pokotilo, who said that Ivan was offered a two-year contract for an amount higher than last year seven times, but Nikolishin rejected the deal.
How the situation is developing with Ivan Nikolishin:
“The situation is complicated.” General Manager of Amur about the contract with Ivan Nikolishin
Ivan is the son of the famous former striker Andrey Nikolishin. In recent years, Nikolishin Jr., having left the CSKA system, having played in Severstal, Major League, Kunlun and even the Finnish Championship, has improved a lot and reached a new level for himself. Nikolishin in the last season of the KHL became the best scorer of the Amur with 42 (17+25) points, which already says a lot. Ivan clearly deserved the improvement in the terms of the contract (and these improvements, according to Pokotilo, were proposed), and in Khabarovsk this offseason they are just making a noisy and quite successful selection.
The Far Eastern club, inspired by last year’s success of its main competitor Admiral, decided to make some noise and significantly increase its budget. Legionnaire Broadhurst was signed for a lot of money, goalkeeper Bobkov was invited, there is an attacker Korshkov in the clip and other serious guys. Khabarovsk has been dreaming of the Gagarin Cup for years, but these talks are still premature. You must first enter the playoffs and pass at least the first round, as the already mentioned “Admiral” did. But for the fact that Amur and his leadership have many ambitions, one can only praise.
However, it is definitely impossible to bring things to situations as in the case of Nikolishin. He must be able to negotiate and seek compromise solutions that suit both parties.
Ivan Nikolishin and Nikita Serebryakov
Photo: Dmitry Soroka, photo.khl.ru
“Ivan Nikolishin? I will say this: whoever is on the contract, everyone is on the team. He was offered a contract, and I understand that for some reason he does not sign it. I work with the ones I have. Ivan is not my player, and in this situation, he doesn’t even have the right to report to preseason camp.
Do you want to sign a contract? For God’s sake, we’ll consider it. If you do not want? Well, they won’t force you to be nice. That’s how I feel about this situation. There are guys with whom we are now committed and with whom we demand. And Nikolishin is now in the same state as any loan player we can theoretically offer. I don’t know how his situation will develop further, ”Andrey Martemyanov, head coach of the Khabarovsk team, who returned to the Far East after being fired from Siberia, commented on the situation.
What problems does Amur have:
The revolution on Amur is a myth. They want to get rid of the stigma of losers, but the problems persist
Now Nikolishin is in the prime of his life. In addition, he is a hockey player who plays in a poor position as a center forward. There has already been talk that Iván could be at Avangard, there is interest from other KHL teams, but the doubt is still in the air. In any case, general manager Pokotilo said that in Amur they would act exclusively in the interest of the club. This, of course, is correct, but the problem has clearly dragged on and it is high time to solve it. Apparently, Ivan no longer wants to perform in Khabarovsk, otherwise the situation would have been resolved long ago. A similar situation was with “Torpedo” with Semyon Der-Arguchintsev, from which Nizhny Novgorod got out with dignity and exchanged rights for a hockey player in “Tractor”, having received compensation. A similar path should be followed by “Cupid”, because, as Martemyanov correctly noted, you will not be sweet by force.
