Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Alexei Yashin update: Agent claims that one NHL team sent an offer

alexyashingetty

Earlier today, we discussed the far-fetched chance of Alexei Yashin returning to the NHL for the 2011-12 season. For the sake of discretion, we’d like to reiterate just how unlikely it would be to see the oft-criticized Russian center back in the league. (Dobber Hockey’s amusing “projection” of his NHL stats serves as a good indicator of the long odds.)

That being said, it’s still an amusing hypothetical situation to discuss on a slow day in mid-July. Yashin is looking for a new contract, after all, so it’s not like an NHL return is impossible.

Puck Daddy’s Dmitry Chesnokov is often a great source of information on Russian hockey player news, whether he’s running an interview or translating reports that would be indecipherable for folks who admit that English is their first (and only) language. Chesnokov translated a report from Sovetsky Sport in which Yashin’s agent Mark Gandler claims that he received an offer from one NHL team.

Is there an interest in Alexei from the NHL?

“We have already received one offer.”

From the Islanders?

“I will not discuss what the club is. We are considering the expediency of the offer.”

Gandler added:

“We will meet with Alexei this week for the first time. We will discuss everything. We are not in a hurry. At this moment we have not had any serious negotiations with any club. It would have been unreasonable to do that until we are sure that everything is good health wise. As far as the leagues are concerned, we will look at both sides [the NHL and the KHL].”


Chesnokov points out the legitimate possibility that this supposed NHL interest is just a negotiating ploy, reminding us that Gandler tried to create a similar stir last year. Chesnokov also tabs foreign team Avtomobilist as a club that might be interested in keeping Yashin overseas.

So, again, it’s safe to say that Yashin’s NHL return would be a long shot. It’s like investing in an old sports car that certainly drives fast and loud, but has enough issues in its repair history to indicate that it is a lemon. If he wants to come back, the price would have to be right for both sides and both sides would need to be comfortable with that situation.

It’s still an entertaining scenario to imagine - even if it’s from a pure rubbernecking standpoint - though, isn’t it?