Fedorov and filthy rich CSKA team are after Radulov, Semin
Now that Rosneft, one of Russia’s oil giants, has taken over full
sponsorship of CSKA Moscow, it gave general manager Sergei Fedorov a
carte blanche to go after the best talent available.
According to Russian sources, Fedorov has expressed serious interest in
the services of Alexander Radulov and Alexander Semin.
So far as Radulov is concerned, Nashville Predators’ general manager
David Poille has already announced he’s perfectly willing to trade
Radulov’s NHL rights to anyone who presents him the best offer, but it
was obvious from his statements that he has no control (and neither does
the potential future NHL club) to answer a simple question: will Radulov
stay or return to Russia?
Semin will be a free agent as of July 1. His agent, Mark Gandler, has
repeatedly shot down news of Semin’s return to Russia but I wouldn’t take that to the bank if I were an NHL team.
The issue is simple: most European players employ different agents to
handle their European affairs. More often than not, they choose not to
share the details of the European dealings with their North American
representatives.
Gandler has repeatedly said Semin would
like to have better guarantees of regular playing time in all
situations, something, he contends, the player has never got from the
Washington Capitals. Gandler has gone so far as to suggest Semin will
not be returning to the Capitals, period.