Is It Fair That NHL Players Play In Europe? Plus, More NHL Links

SBN United's Travis Hughes has compiled a huge list of locked out NHL players that have crossed the ocean to play for European teams. (The Canucks are the only team that has no players that have jumped ship.) It gets bigger by the week. That doesn't include NHL players playing in the AHL or Alaska, etc. But let's just lump those players into the same bunch. The NHL lockout takes it's toll on so many people beyond the players. Trainers, team staff, arena staff....and how about the players getting bumped out of a job in the AHL or Europe because NHL players want to play somewhere to keep fresh and maintain playing competitive hockey until the NHL season resumes?

This has been weighing on my mind for quite some time, and it angers me. It angers me because I waste brain space thinking about the current fail that is the NHL. It angers me more that these NHL players use some form of seniority that does not exist to bump players out of their current job. Well, the seniority is skill and popularity, but that doesn't make it right. Do I think the players should all stay in North America to show unity and fight the good fight and form a more united front? No. But there must be a better way than what they are doing now.

The KHL is the easiest bunch to throw a stone at. They welcomed NHL talent right away and did not hide the fact that the marketing potential is exponential. That is a no-brainer: cashing in. But this cashing in comes at the expense of roster players that were already in place (whether European or former NHL players). Players that have mouths to feed. Players that make squat compared to what NHL players normally would make. Now they have to look elsewhere and their bread and butter gets taken away because of squabbling players and NHL. The NHL players, as this Globe and Mail article points out, have financial planners in place and have invested accordingly in case there was a lockout.

I will say no more. Technically, the NHL players can do whatever they want. There are no rules stopping them. But as you can see, I am looking at this from a moral perspective. Morals. Something lacking from these millionaires. Dog eat dog.

Sidney Crosby said back in mid-September:

"I'm a hockey player and it's a competitive business. Would I look forward to that opportunity of taking someone's job? No. But at the end of the day I'm a hockey player."

I rest my case.

More Lockout Links

-Ilya Bryzgalov told a Russian interviewer that some Russian players may not even come back to the NHL if play resumes because the KHL pays players good money.

-UGH

-Sportsnet will televise AHL games starting October 13. Yay!

-5 Questions: Steve Yzerman talks Lightning GM role.

Canucks' Alexandre Grenier gets whacked and suffers a concussion:

And On To More Important Matters

-An alcohol company called G-Spirit is promising customers that every drop of alcohol they produce is poured over a naked model's breasts before bottling. Yea. Intriguing, but I'll stick with my Spiced Rum and Coke.

Thanks to a conversation about who has the greatest rock and roll voice of all time in our latest Off Topic Thread, I have Skid Row on the brain. And hell yes Sebastian Bach has a tremendous voice.

MOAR COWBELL!