Insider Trading: Foreign players bolt KHL as playoffs begin

TSN Hockey Insiders Chris Johnston, Darren Dreger and Pierre LeBrun join host James Duthie to discuss how the Russia-Ukraine war is affecting the KHL, the latest on Jake DeBrusk and Claude Giroux’s trade status, and the new direction of the Chicago Blackhawks.  How is everything surrounding the Ukraine-Russia conflict affecting the KHL right now?Chris Johnston: The league might be back [from its break], but it looks a fair bit different than when it did prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That is because sources indicate a number of players that are foreigners in that league, from outside of Russia, have initiated having their contracts terminated in recent days and wanting to get out of Russia. That includes some North Americans and guys who have played in the NHL in the past like [forwards] Shane Prince, Geoff Platt, and Nick Shore. These are prominent players over in that league. So in addition to the two teams that dropped out of the league right before the playoffs [Jokerit of Finland and Dinamo Riga of Latvia], you now have a number of foreigners running away and it’s left things rather unstable. One agent over there told me that his agent that had his money stored in rubles has basically seen that amount of money decrease by half because of the currency’s instability. Some are wondering about the long-term viability of the KHL. They got the playoffs going but there’s a lot of wreckage around those playoffs.What is the situation with forward Jake DeBrusk and the Boston Bruins after his hat trick on Monday night?

Pierre LeBrun: After speaking with DeBrusk’s agent, Rick Valette, there has not been a change of heart. This means the trade demand is still in place for DeBrusk, to hopefully, in his case, get a trade