More players to suffer the same fate as Flyers goalie Ivan Fedotov in Russia!

This story has been trending for days now: Philadelphia Flyers goaltender and prospect Ivan Fedotov was arrested by Russian authorities who allege that he evaded military service and illegally broke his contract with CSKA Moscow. He was then sent a remote military base in northern Russia.

This prompts many insiders and players’ agent to worry about the safety of other Russian NHLers, wondering if they will be willing or able to join National Hockey League teams that draft them this week as the war in Ukraine continues.

On May 7, Fedotov signed a contract with the Flyers, agreeing on a one-year deal with a $925,000 cap hit because he did not have an existing contract in Russia for next season. The Flyers had originally selected him in the 2015 NHL Draft in the seventh round.

Some others players, who were part of CSKA Moscow like Fedotov, fear they might suffer the same fate and be sent to the army instead:

They play for the Nashville Predators, Dallas Stars, New York Islanders, and Edmonton Oilers organizations.

Last week, insiders Michael Russo and Dan Robson of The Athletic wrote a piece about the big unknown of Russian players being allowed to come back to the NHL. Some NHL general managers, including Brian MacLellan of the Washington Capitals and Minnesota Wild’s Bill Guerin, asked players to stay in the United States over the summer.

“I think a lot of us are worried,” MacLellan said during March’s NHL general managers meetings in Manalapan, Fla. “I don’t know that anybody knows what’s going to happen. Hopefully there’s a resolution by then, a peaceful resolution, but you never know what could happen. I mean, they could be asked to stay or forced to stay or just there’s all kinds of outcomes that could happen.

“I think there’s a lot of questions but no answers.”

However, the GMs did not force their Russian players to stay and most of them headed back home.

This is what Russo and Robson report:

“Fifty-seven Russians played in the NHL last season, and several more are about to be selected in next week’s NHL Draft in Montreal. Three of those players — Pavel Mintyukov, Danila Yurov and Ivan Miroshnichenko — could be picked in the first round. But the league has consciously tried not to pick a fight with the government and has been sensitive with every bit of communication having to do with Russia.”

Part of me wonders if the Russian government would dare to stop NHLers from coming to America. And Russo and Robson appear to feel the same, just like some assistant general managers they spoke to:

“That would be quite the international news story if all of a sudden Kirill Kaprizov and Alex Ovechkin and Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky and Andrei Vasilevskiy all were not in the NHL next year,” an assistant GM said. “That would be some story. There’s a lot to consider and there’s a lot of what-ifs, but hopefully none of them actually come to fruition.”

UPDATE: Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that Kaprizov is wanted in Russia for purchasing a fake military identification. There is reportedly an investigation into players buying fake military IDs from a person who was detained. And that person has allegedly named Kaprizov.

Does this make you feel any better about the situation?