In public, Kudashov diligently maintains the image of a serious and sensible coach. However, in the last big interview, he revealed himself from a much less attractive side. Dynamo’s head coach suddenly began to push for the complete abolition of the limit of foreign players in the KHL, as well as the need for a mass departure of the best Russian youth to North America.
To put it mildly, such proposals cause great bewilderment. It is even strange that they would occur to a person working in such a serious position. Does Kudashov not realize the destructive potential of his ideas and how much these ideas will harm the hockey industry?
Well, really, how is it possible in today’s realities to promote the idea of mass importation of second-rate foreigners? Dynamo’s head coach believes that without a limit on foreign players, the KHL championship will be “cool”. Although the entire history of the last 20 years of our hockey convinces otherwise.
Remember how the dominance of the legionnaires almost killed the entire Russian school of goalkeepers in the late 2000s hockey. In all big clubs, the vacancy of the first goalkeeper was filled by second-rate foreigners: Brathwaite, Scott, Norrena, Vehanen, Ersberg and dozens of their ilk. Russia spent tens of millions of dollars on these guest workers, and the national team could not find a goalkeeper for the World Cup in our championship.
Remember how Finnish and Czech forwards played for years in the first teams of KHL clubs, and then regularly “buried” our national team at international tournaments. 2010 World Cup, 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, etc. Until last year’s Beijing, where Kudashov was part of our coaching staff. Did you forget that the Russian national team lost the final hard to the Finns formed in the KHL?
A person who works as the head coach of a club like Dynamo is obliged to look after the interests of Russian hockey. He must see that the talented Russian youth have nowhere to play anyway. New generations of the gifted are growing up in our country, and career impulses “from the MHL to the KHL” should be provided precisely for ours.
In the early 2000s, an excellent rule was introduced in the Russian Championship. Teams were required to field five young players for each match. Thanks to this, a whole generation of great hockey players has flourished in our hockey – from Nikulin and Tereshchenko to Grebeshkov and Perezhogin. Those who, after a very short time, will win four World Cup gold medals for the country in 6 years. That’s something to remember Kudashova, that’s what he offers. That would be an act of a patriot, a person who supports the interests of Russian hockey.
Instead, the Dynamo head coach prefers to act as a foreign agent. Are you really not satisfied with the current KHL championship, where in the end most of the teams – 13 out of 20 – have three foreigners in their composition, or even less? But how many Russian stars have lit up during these six months, how many new names have been revealed!
Kudashov’s proposals are very untimely. Not just because they go against the interests of hockey. But also because they do not take into account the current situation in Russia and in the world. Citizens across the country are raising funds to help their military, tightening their belts in many industries. Spending on the salaries of foreign hockey players (3-4 billion rubles a year) caused bewilderment even in peacetime. And in today’s realities, they are simply unacceptable, including from the point of view of social stability.
Especially if you remember that hockey is sponsored with public money. Who has the right to decide how to spend the funds allocated from state budgets and corporations? Well, he’s certainly not a Dynamo mentor.
By his status, Kudashov is an ordinary employee in an industry that is subsidized by the state. And here we are looking at an incredible moment. Russian hockey has adopted an import substitution strategy. The number of foreigners is limited by management decision. All structures, including the league and clubs, do not oppose him. Everyone understands that it is necessary to carry out important tasks for the state. And here come the statements of a person who, in principle, is not authorized to resolve matters of such a serious level. Interestingly, Kudashov himself thought about his ideas of an “open league”? Or did someone suggest to you that it was time to oppose the line in order to strengthen Russian hockey?
And who might be interested in this?
But in his interview, the Dynamo head coach is also putting pressure on the Russian youth to go to North America. If his reasoning is honored by a non-hockey person, he’ll think any athlete is guaranteed a spot in the NHL. “Playing for 7 minutes, a person understands that the next stage for him will be playing for 12 minutes and so on,” says Kudashov.
The problem is that these statements have nothing to do with reality. In life, everything happens exactly the opposite. If in America they are not ready to immediately give the Russian newcomer a place in the first links and a lot of playing time, then they will not give it later either. Starting a career in semi-reserve status, the chances of coming out on top are one in a hundred. The vast majority will simply rot in the lower overseas leagues, ruin their careers. And it will be lost forever to Russian hockey.
I hope that young hockey players still do not take Kudashov’s words about the NHL to heart. And they won’t respond to his call to leave for “guaranteed prospects” (which don’t really exist).
That’s why I argue with the Dynamo coach that his proposals are the way to turn the KHL into a league where most are second-rate foreigners, and all the young talents emigrated to the USA and Canada instead of playing at home, and disappeared. there. Neither Russian hockey nor mass Russian fans need such a KHL in any case. It is strange that Kudashov himself does not understand this.
