Oddly, despite the influence of players such as Jagr -- the first European to win an NHL scoring title -- and Ovechkin and Malkin, the first Russian 1-2 finishers in NHL scoring -- the international sphere of influence on the NHL is shrinking. Particularly, exports to the West from talent-rich Russia are slumping.
In other words: The Russians aren't coming.
At least not in the droves they did in the decade and a half between the fall of communist Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union around 1990 and the end of the NHL's lockout in 2005.
Foreign exchange
Nearly twice as many Czechs such as Jagr populated league rosters when this season started, 51 to 27 Russians. That latter figure represents a 115-percent drop in the number of Russian NHL players from six seasons ago, when there were some 58. Even the Entry Draft has seen a decline, from the 19 Russians selected in 2004 -- when Ovechkin and Malkin went Nos. 1 and 2 -- to nine last June.
Part of the reason, Gonchar said, is that officials in the Russian Super League have more (read: oil-stained) payroll and less inclination to part with young prospects whom "they develop over there and invest a lot of money on." Also, Gonchar added, Russians who would be minor-leaguers or lower-line NHL players in North America -- such as former Penguins winger Aleksey Morozov -- "decide to stay at home, where they don't have to adjust to anything" -- and, of course, earn far more rubles than ever before.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08132...pid=sports.xml