Matheson: Russian participation a question mark for Edmonton/Red Deer world junior tournament

While the Court of Arbitration for Sport has decided that Russian hockey teams will be allowed in IIHF sanctioned events for the first time in five years, starting with the U20 world junior here and in Red Deer over the Christmas break, will we actually see them back in Alberta?

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There may be no “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians are Coming” headline.

Do countries really want them back on the international hockey map for the first time since the U20 tournament was held in our province, starting on Boxing Day of 2021 and running until Jan. 5, 2022, but postponed because of a Covid outbreak on several teams?

As much as having a Russian team in any tournament gives it more juice and two of the top four prospects in the 2027 draft — forwards Nazar Privalov and Sergei Skortsov — could be on their U20 squad, this should still be a giant unwelcome mat, right, with Russia illegally invading Ukraine in late February of 2022 and killing civilians as the war rages on.

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The 10-team tournament as it currently stands has Canada in a pool at Rogers Place with Czechia, Switzerland, Latvia and Norway, while USA, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and Germany are in a deeper group in Red Deer, starting Dec. 26. The schedule’s out, teams have training camp sites in various Alberta centres — Blackfalds, Cold Lake, Camrose, Lloydminster, Edmonton and Calgary — exhibition games have been set up, hotel rooms have been booked.

Now what if the Russians are allowed in? The logistics of that are tricky, starting with making it possibly a 12-team tournament, and allowing Belarus, the Russian proxy in this war with Ukraine, as well, and fitting it all into 11 days.

Yes, the hockey fan has always benefitted by having Russia in an international event. Yes, hypothetically, it would be nice to see Privalov and Skorstov, if you’re a fan, but also if you are an NHL scout or a hockey commentator because, teams haven’t been able to send North American scouts to Russia. The NHL teams have counted on their Russian-based scout for intel or, more importantly, the camp/combine for draft prospects that agent Dan Milstein runs through Gold Star Hockey in Florida that NHL teams attend?

“Nobody is condoning what Russia has done,” said TSN commentator Craig Button, also their ace amateur scout, who certainly knows the human suffering with the Russia-Ukraine war.

“My understanding and it’s still rudimentary, at this time, is if the Russians want to be at the U20 in December, the IIHF has to allow them in,” said Button, who has seen other sports allowing Russians and Ukrainians against one another.

“We’ve seen Russians and Ukrainians playing against one another at major tennis tournaments. That’s the No.1 sport doing it,” said Button, acknowledging two salient issues with the Russians and the U20.

The logistics of adding a Russian team to the field at this late date are chock full of problems for the organizers, plus the Russian hockey people aren’t as excited about juniors as they are the senior world championship, which comes up in Germany (Mannheim and Dusseldorf) in May of 2027, and which the recent arbitration ruling allows for Russian participation.

So here we are, with the door to international resumption cracked open by the CAS, citing security concerns by the IIHF as a weak stance/defence. We know one thing: Canada doesn’t want them, certainly not on current Secretary of State for Sport Adam van Koeverden’s watch. He’s a politician but also a decorated athlete, who knows right from wrong as a human being, not just on a playing field or the water, and he wants no part of the Russians in this junior tournament, hosted in Canada.

The U20 event is federally funded and there are strict restrictions on Russian and Belarus teams in it. He says the government won’t give the Russians visas to come to the country—Canada is supplying military and humanitarian support to Ukraine — although many junior players who could be on this U20 Russian team are already in Canada, playing in the CHL.

The Finns, Czechia, Sweden and Germany have all expressed distaste with the arbitration for sport ruling. Maybe they take their protest to a boycott, then there’s no U20 here.

We certainly know there are 400,000 Ukrainians in Alberta, who likely want no part of a Russian team here, even if there is no junior team from Ukraine in the U20 field.

The last time they were in this province was during Covid in late December 2021, when the international junior tournament was postponed Dec. 29 of that year after four days of play and nine games. The IIHF felt the integrity of the tournament had been compromised because of several positive tests and fearing the omicron variant might bring more.

There was no bubble to keep players away from the public and participants on Russia, USA and Czechia were forced to forfeit preliminary-round games because some of their kids became sick and had to be quarantined. They had come in contact with people from a wedding party at the same Red Deer hotel they were staying at.

The hockey event was stopped and rescheduled for the summer of 2022 here, but without Russia after their invasion of Ukraine, with the IIHF banning Russia and their satellite Belarus from international tournaments.

Complicating the junior landscape now: Even without the CAS ruling a few days ago, Belarus had already been granted a spot by the IIHF at the U18 worlds in Duluth, Minn. next April. They are to play in a pool with Canada, Finland, Slovakia and Czechia, but the IIHF did not want the U20 as part of their mandate.

Could the Russians even scramble to put a U20 team together with coaches, with players, just two months before the tournament starts? The last time they were in Alberta was late December 2021 when current Oiler D Shakir Mukhamadullin, San Jose goalie Yaroslav Askarov and forwards Matvei Michkov (Flyers), Danila Yurov (Wild) and Marat Khusnutinov (Bruins) were on the Russian team and Hall of Fame defenceman Sergei Zubov was their head coach.

It’s been a barren scouting wasteland for NHL teams since the Russians have been out of international competitions, never mind going over to the KHL to watch. “Nobody’s (from North America) going into Russia to scout players right now,” said Button. “Everybody (NHL teams) has a Russian scout looking at prospects but to have the Russians leave their country to be observed, is really important.”

“The quality of an international tournament is immediately raised with the Russians in it. When you think about hockey you think Canada vs Russia,” said Button, with Russian kids actually playing together in Canada, in Ontario and Prince Edward Island, last June in an event, sponsored by Milstein’s Gold Star Hockey.

If the Russians do wind up playing in the U20, Button thinks they would expand the field to 12 teams. He thinks it might be Belarus. If there are 12 teams, the top three in each pool would go to the playoffs, and three teams would be relegated to another division.

“There would be a lot of logistics to work on, how you change the schedule. Maybe with such a short time to put a team together, the Russians say they’ll take a pass and prepare for the following U20 in Finland,” said Button

If they do show up in Alberta, the Russian squad would be strong, with three top-10 2027 first-round draft prospects: forwards Privalov (CSKA Moscow), Skortsov (Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod) and Andrei Pustovoi (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl), all playing in the KHL as teenagers. But, likely heavily dotted with players on CHL junior teams.

“There’s (centre) Egor Shilov in Victoriaville, a goal-scorer Alexei Vlasov on the same team, there’s a defenceman Vladimir Shtyrkhunov in Shawinigan, a 2009 born, Oleg Kulebiakin in Halifax, drafted by Tampa Bay, Bogdan Yakushevsky playing in Windsor” said Button. “There’s a kid Artom Katsuro with Calgary Hitmen.”

Also, Anaheim’s 2026 first-round forward Nikita Klepov, who, because he was born in Florida, has played for USA at the Hlinka-Gretzky tournament, an event not sanctioned by the IIHF. But his parents are both Russian.

It’s all hypothetical Russian team stuff, though, if they either aren’t allowed by Canada to play in the U20, or the Euro nations boycott the tournament.

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