Pavel Datsyuk not happy with the direction of the NHL.

There's no doubt that the primary motivating factor for the departure of former Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk was his desire to be closer to his teenager daughter back home, but might there have been a hockey-related reason as well?

In a recent interview with the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette Datsyuk shared his thoughts on the current state of the game in the National Hockey League, and it didn't sounds like he had a very positive outlook on the direction of the game.

“There are not many creative players now,” Datsyuk said following Team Russia’s World Cup of Hockey practice at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex on Sunday. “It’s less and less every year. There’s lots of talent, but teams are playing more systems.”

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Datsyuk is not the first player to make such comments, and considering he plays in the much looser Kontinental Hockey League now he has some perspective on how the game looks from the other side. It's obvious based on his comments he prefers his current situation, but those days of may be done and gone in the NHL, and that may not be a good thing in the eyes of many.