Bigger hockey fans can correct me if I'm wrong, but the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) seems like the kind of league that threatens to steal top-flight talent from the NHL, but succeeds rarely. Sure, they have some stars, but even though it is the best league in Europe, the overall talent pool doesn't really compare.
↵So when a report comes out that Semyon Varlamov, a restricted free agent for the Capitals, is considering signing in th KHL after the season, I'm tempted to dismiss it as merely a leverage ploy. But I also could be wrong. Here's the report from Yahoo! Sports' Dmitry Chesnokov.
↵↵↵↵↵#Caps Varlamov's Russian agent says "a few elite KHL clubs are interested in Semyon" and that Varlamov "is considering the possibility."
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Again, it feels like a leverage ploy, especially because Varlamov is a restricted free agent. But who knows. Maybe Varlamov is legitimately frustrated by all the goalie competition he faces and Bruce Boudreau's "ride the hot goalie" philosophy. Maybe he just wants a steady job for once, even if it's not an NHL job.
↵Of course, if it's the latter that he wants, he should hope to be consistently healthy for once.
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