Could a KHL club buyout the contract of an NHL player?

[Mr Kanadensisk]

There has been a lot of interesting talk about players like Visnovsky wanting to stay in Europe. Unfortunately it is such an emotional topic that the threads discussing this get derailed pretty quickly.

I would like to know what would happen if the player, the NHL club and the KHL club were all in agreement that they would like to allow the player to leave and play in the KHL. Could the NHL stop this if the NHL club was okay with it? What if the NHL club wanted compensation? Could the KHL buy the contract out with cash? I assume a player trade is out of the question. What would the NHL salary cap implications be? I should also mention I am talking about a player with a one way NHL contract, not a two way player being loaned to the KHL instead of going to the AHL.

 

[Hockey Team]

The CBA is between the NHL and the NHLPA.

Anything that happens between an NHL club and a KHL club is outside the scope of the CBA.

Any cap hit implications would come from terminating the contract between the club and the player, that's it.

 

[sh724]

Any one who has a contract has the 'right' to buy it out. Some contracts state the amount needed for a buy out others have to be negotiated between the parties.

There was talk a couple years ago about Tarasenko buying out his KHL contract so he could come to STL last season, but in the end he did not do it. In that situation the Blues were not able to help him in any way to buy out his contract. I would guess it works both ways were the KHL team would not be able to help at all.

 

[kdb209]

Any one who has a contract has the 'right' to buy it out. Some contracts state the amount needed for a buy out others have to be negotiated between the parties.

There was talk a couple years ago about Tarasenko buying out his KHL contract so he could come to STL last season, but in the end he did not do it. In that situation the Blues were not able to help him in any way to buy out his contract. I would guess it works both ways were the KHL team would not be able to help at all.

The only party that has the right to buy out an NHL SPC is the team. There is no provision for a player to buy out his SPC, nor for him to pay the team to buy him out (any agreement or payment between the player and team outside of an SPC is prohibited by the CBA).

Players (or reportedly agents) were permitted to buy out KHL (or other Euro) contracts, but, under a ruling from Bettman, the players' NHL teams were prohibited from being involved.

Nothing in the CBA or By-Laws that I am aware of would prohibit a KHL team from coming to an agreement with an NHL team to reimburse them the costs of buying out a player. NHL teams similarly negotiated when they came to agreements to loan players to KHL/Euro teams - the NHL team was still obligated under the SPC to pay the players full salary, but the KHL/Euro team could pick up all or part of it by reimbursing the NHL team for the salary it paid.

 

[LadyStanley]

There was talk a couple years ago about Tarasenko buying out his KHL contract so he could come to STL last season, but in the end he did not do it. In that situation the Blues were not able to help him in any way to buy out his contract. I would guess it works both ways were the KHL team would not be able to help at all.

Because any payments NHL teams would make could be considered (in-)direct payment to player's benefit and there was all kinds of speculation about cap circumvention, etc., with nothing in the CBA covering this "eventuality"/possibility.

As it's been mentioned only a handful of times, and with leagues without a NHL transfer agreement, I think it's kinda a "don't go there" issue with the NHL. (IOW, if a team attempted it, it might jeopardize their franchise rights.)


Now may be in 5-10 years, a system/method might need to be worked out.


(And the way it's been made public, it kinda sounds like extortion to get the kid out of his XYZ league contract so he could then transfer/sign with NHL team. And like a "hey, NHL team, you OWE us a gazillion dollars for developing this kid.")

 

[Mr Kanadensisk]

It seems that even if an NHL player, his NHL club and a KHL club all agreed that they wanted his NHL contract bought out so that he could go to the KHL his existing NHL contract would still have to clear waivers. In other words before he could go to the KHL every team in the NHL would first have the option to pick up his existing NHL contract and if they did obviously the deal would be off and he would have to stay in the NHL. Is this correct?