KHL and NHL in negotiations to host games in Russia.

For many years now the National Hockey League and the Kontinental Hockey League have been viewed as competing brands, this in spite of the fact that the 2 distinct leagues each cover a vastly different part of the globe. On Monday however we learned that the 2 leagues have been working together in the hopes of bring NHL hockey to Russia, something that could be the first phase in a growing partnership between world's 2 largest hockey leagues.

SB Nation's Andrew Zadarnowski was the first to break the news on Monday when he revealed that the two sides were working on hosting "a couple of exhibition games" in Russia, with the target date being somewhere around September of 2022. That is of course less than one year away which means that these discussions are likely well underway, but I do wonder how much of this will depend on what the situation surrounding Covid will look like at that time.

According to Zadarnowski 2 teams have been slated as the likely candidates to play out those exhibition games, and the names won't come as any surprise. Rumored to be participating in those games are the Washington Capitals and the Tampa Bay Lightning and, when you consider both of those teams have rosters that feature some of the biggest Russian hockey stars in the entire world, those choices make a lot of sense.

Alexander Ovechkin and Nikita Kucherov are expected to be the big draws, but both teams boast other high profile Russian athletes as well including Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov.

I must admit given all the concern that there has been surrounding Olympic participation in Beijing, China for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, I have my doubts about whether or not this is truly realistic. That being said it would be wonderful for fans in Russia to get to see some of their idols live and in person, and perhaps more importantly it could lead to more developments like this between the KHL and the NHL in the future. .

Maybe if we're really lucky we might even one day be graced by the presence of Russian hockey legend Vladimir Putin.