Russian NHLers could be arrested, are warned to “be careful!

The war in Ukraine is ugly and, unfortunately, some Russian athletes who want to condemn the unprovoked invasion are putting themselves in dangers. On top of that, everyone is attempting to send a message in order to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin and his desire to take over Ukraine… On Monday, the International Ice Hockey Federation banned the Russians — and the Belarusians — from international hockey for the foreseeable future in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On Tuesday, CCM Hockey made the decision to drop superstar Alex Ovechkin and other Russian NHLers from its marketing materials in response to Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

On Tuesday, player agent Daniel Milstein, the agent for about 80% of NHL Russian players, made a statement on what’s now taking place in the NHL, revealing that players were being discriminated, threatened as well as their families.

Now this morning, it’s TSN’s Rick Westhead who revealed that players have been told to be careful as “Russian parliament considering new law that could mean up to 15 years in prison for spreading “fake news” about the war.”

You have to imagine that Russia sees saying anything negative about Putin as fake news. The message out there for Russian NHLers is to remain careful.

As far as we know Milstein has not revealed the identity of the players who have been on the receiving end of these threats, but he has several high profile Russian clients including Tampa Bay Lightning star forward Nikita Kucherov, Lightning star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, Ottawa Senators defenseman Nikita Zaitsev, Calgary Flames defenseman Nikita Zadorov, New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin, and many more. Earlier this week, Zadorov showed his anti-war stance, posting a similar black square with ‘NO WAR’ in red letters on his Instagram account.

This has to be a difficult time for these players : they are from Russia, but regardless of how angry you may be at the Russian government for their actions in the Ukraine, please do not take out your anger and frustrations on innocent hockey players who have played no part in those actions. Harming, or threatening to harm, innocent people will do nothing to solve the problem and will only cause more suffering.

We hope everyone remains safe and that this war and all of its collateral damage can come to an end quick.