FLIGHT: a comprehensive primer on Evgeni Malkin’s “escape” to the NHL
disclaimer: Some of the information about Geno’s journey to the USA and the events leading up to it is murky; some sources contradict others, and some timelines do not match up. This primer does its best to synthesize the information into a single narrative, but be aware that some sources will differ.
Some key players in this story:
Gennadi Velichkin, GM of Metallurg Magnitogorsk
Viktor Rashnikov, Magnitogorsk Steel and Iron Works plant president and Metallurg team president
Sergei Isakov, Geno’s former Russian agent
Don Meehan, another former agent of Geno’s
Pat Brisson, one of Geno’s North American agents
(perhaps also worth mentioning: this is Sidney Crosby’s agent as well)
J.P. Barry, the other of Geno’s North American agents
(again, also Sid’s agent)
Gennady Ushakov, Geno’s Russian agent after Isakov, ally of Brisson and Barry
Olga McQueen, a Vancouver-based Russian working as a translator with Brisson and Barry
PART ONE: THE PREGAME
Evgeni (Geno) Malkin started playing professionally for the Russian Superleague’s* Metallurg Magnitogorsk at age 17, sometime during the 2003-2004 season (for 34 of the 60 games) and after spending a few months on their B-team [1].
- *the KHL was not formed until 2008; it was called the Superleague before being rebranded [4].
While playing for the under-18 national team (which he won bronze with in 2003 and captained to gold in 2004 [26]), Geno had met Gennady Ushakov, a former professional goalie who believed Geno’s “future was not limited to playing professionally at home.” Gennady was employed by CAA Sports, who boasted clients such as Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky. Impressed, Geno signed Ushakov on as an agent [22].
During this time he also participated in the 2004 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships (December 2003 - January 2004) with Alexander Ovechkin, where Russia placed 5th [2, 3].
Metallurg finished 1st in the Superleague that season; they went on to lose 3-2 in the Championship Final [5]. On June 21, 2004, Geno and his family members (presumably his parents, Vladimir and Natalia) picked up visitor’s visas and flew from Moscow to New York, then to Raleigh (North Carolina) for the 2004 NHL Draft [6]. On June 26–27, 2004, Geno was drafted 2nd overall to the Pittsburgh Penguins [7].
On September 16, 2004 (81 days after Geno was drafted), the NHL entered a lockout “after nearly two years of failed collective bargaining talks” [8]. Geno (and Ovi) then participated in the 2005 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships (December 25 – January 4), where they tragically(?) lost to Sidney Crosby and Team Canada, 6-1 [9, 10]. A prominent NHL scout present said Geno was “the best player outside the NHL right now and it isn’t even close” [24].
In Spring 2005, Metallurg finished a respectable 3rd in the Superleague’s regular season, but lost 3-2 in the 1st round [11]. Around this time, Geno started putting into motion his plans to head to the NHL: that summer “team officials made a verbal promise to Malkin that if he played one more year for them, they would support him leaving for the NHL and the Penguins in 2006″ [12].
That same summer (August 16, 2005), the NHL and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) reached a new two-year agreement setting parameters for transferring players from European leagues to the NHL. The previous agreement had expired in the summer of 2004 [24].
The new agreement required a flat fee of $200,000 to be paid to the IIHF whenever a NHL team signed a player drafted by a European team and also gave NHL teams less time to sign European transfers (by June 15 instead of mid-September) [24].
Russia was the only major European hockey power that refused to agree to the new terms, mainly over their desire to directly negotiate higher transfer fees with individual NHL teams. The agreement only forbade the NHL from accepting Russian players who were under existing contracts at home, and this was not satisfactory to Russia. Vladislav Tretyak, the head of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, cited Geno as the primary reason why Russia was reluctant to agree [24].
Geno also participated in the 2006 Olympics with Team Russia in Turin, Italy, where Team Russia lost the Bronze medal to the Czech Republic [24, 27].
In the 2005–2006 Russian Superleague season, Metallurg finished first, and then suffered another loss (3-1) in the 3rd round [13]. Though he was Metallurg’s leading scorer and MVP, Geno was at a breaking point; over his three seasons, he hadn’t been able to scrape together even 100 points [1, 24]. J.P. Barry had been trying to convince Geno that the 2006-2007 season was the perfect time to join the NHL, and the “Malkins had been under the impression that Evgeni could get out of his contract after the 2005-06 season to join the Penguins” [1].
Luckily, it seemed like Geno’s transfer would be able to go through: “the executive board of the Russian Hockey Federation unanimously approved Russia’s participation in the transfer agreement in June 2006, after the owners of the Russian Super League teams had apparently yielded one week earlier” [24].
However, the NHL's July 31 deadline to sign the agreement passed without any signing. There would be no agreement for transfers for Russian players for the 2006-07 season. Russian players would need to “secure their own releases” in order to sign with any NHL team [24]. Metallurg’s general manager Gennadi Velichkin called Geno “Russia’s national treasure” and said he was a franchise player who could be worth a transfer fee “into the tens of millions of dollars” [24].
Suddenly, getting to the NHL looked a lot harder.
PART TWO: THE BEGINNING OF THE END
In June 2006, Geno sent a fax (at the recommendation of his then-agent Don Meehan) to Gennadi Velichkin, calling upon a Russian labor law that would allow him to terminate his contract within two weeks’ notice [1, 14]. Geno had initially rejected this plan; Magnitogorsk was his home, and he didn’t want to abandon it (and his family, and his business interests) through a potentially ignoble legal process [24].
Two days later, Velichkin called Geno into his office. Telling Geno “That’s not the way to behave and don’t you ever do it again,” he tore up the fax in front of Geno and threw it away, telling Geno to keep the meeting "strictly confidential,” and “not to reveal to anyone that he had destroyed [Geno’s] letter of resignation” [15, 14]. Geno informed Velichkin he hoped a compromise could be made. Velichkin assured Geno that he would not be pressured into staying, and would instead be offered options through negotiations [15].
Those negotiations took a while: “For weeks, Evgeni met almost daily with Velichkin and Velichkin’s assistant (Kuprianov),” and Velichkin was in “near constant” contact with Natalia, Geno’s mother [1].
“Velichkin discussed what the benefit would be for my husband and I if Evgeni stayed and played for Metallurg for more one season. He promised us a free VIP suite at the Metallurg hockey arena and that my husband [who used to play for Metallurg] could drop the puck on opening night.” - Natalia Malkin [14]
Also, somewhere around here, Geno adopted Geoffrey, a 10-pound Dogue de Bordeaux/French Mastiff puppy who would eventually become a “120-pound slobbering, growling French Mastiff, stuffing his face into the snow and dragging Vladimir by the leash” [1].
During one of these near-daily meetings, Geno was told Metallurg would only release him from his contract if Pittsburgh paid $2 million for him [14]. Geno had unwittingly become further caught in the larger disagreement between the Russian Ice Hockey Federation and the NHL. Under the older agreement, the Pittsburgh Penguins would have paid the flat rate of $200,000 for Geno; now the Russians demanded ten times that [21]. When the transfer agreement between the Russian Ice Hockey Federation and the NHL officially fell through on August 2, Geno was no longer allowed to play for Pittsburgh [12].
…to make matters even worse than that, at some point before sending that fateful fax, Geno had left Brisson and Barry and hired Sergei Isakov, Don Meehan, and Newport Sports as his agents. What he didn’t know was that Isakov and Newport Sports had handed over his passport to Velichkin. Geno asked for it back; Velichkin refused. Geno fired his agents (Meehan had barely represented Geno for two months [19]) and went back to Brisson and Barry on August 5 after calling them [12, 25].
Barry was especially concerned that Geno was followed home whenever Metallurg believed he was in contact with Barry or other North American agents [17]. Allegations eventually surfaced about Metallurg officials swarming Geno’s car and following him home, attempting to get him to sign a new contract [24].
By August 6, 2006, Velichkin was ready to dig his heels in. Viktor Rashnikov, Metallurg Magnitogorsk team president and Magnitogorsk Steel and Iron Works (MMK) plant president, invited Geno and his parents to his lakeside offices at Bannoe, a lake near Magnitogorsk, for a 9 p.m. meeting [12, 15]. Rashnikov deemed it so important that he flew back from a vacation in Italy to attend the meeting [14, 20]. It’s worth noting that Vladimir Malkin had worked (and possibly was still working) in one of the MMK plants, and had also played hockey with Metallurg [1, 24].
Although Barry urged Geno not to go, “as he would be in an isolated environment and subject to immense pressure,” Geno and his parents went [14].
“I advised Evgeni to show willpower and not to sign the contract. Evgeni, from his point of view, really wanted to meet with Velichkin so that he could explain him everything eye to eye. He was probably naïve enough to think that from the 10th or 15th time, Metallurg would understand that they won’t be able to hold him back.” - J.P. Barry [15]
According to Geno, negotiations went on for about an hour and a half [15]. He was “offered a one-year contract worth a reported $3.45 million, which would be the highest in the Russian Super League for that season and more than he would make for the Penguins” [1].
“They said that if I did not sign the new contract, no one in Magnitogorsk would want to speak with me, and that this was not how I wanted to live. Mr. Kuprianov then said they could have taken steps to have me conscripted into the Russian army, but had not done so.
“I understood that Mr. Velichkin was referring to how powerful the club was and what they could do to me if I did not sign the new contract. Other Russian hockey teams have found ways to have players who wanted to leave to play in the NHL conscripted into the Russian military.” - Evgeni Malkin [14]
Geno’s dream was still to play in the NHL, and he believed that Velichkin was using him as a pawn in order to obtain better terms in the player transfer agreement [12, 24]. The Malkin family said goodbye to Rashnikov and left the building, but the fight wasn’t over yet; Velichkin and the Malkins (and possibly another team official [12]) spoke outside the building for about an hour, and Velichkin was beginning to raise his voice [15].
Meanwhile, Brisson and Barry were growing increasingly anxious about the meeting, to the point where they called the Malkin home at 11 p.m. Denis (Geno’s older brother) answered and told them his family wasn’t home yet [12].
After arguing with the Malkins outside, Velichkin then insisted negotiations should move to the Malkin house, “because there was a contract there, and [the Malkins] would sign it anyway” [15]. Velichkin was referring to a contract he had drafted with Geno’s Russian agent Ushakov, and later told reporters that he had been invited to the Malkin home [14]. The Malkins said otherwise:
“I did not invite him in because we were extremely tired and I did not want to speak with Mr. Velichkin any further. Finally, Mr. Velichkin said that we should invite him in. We did not think that we could refuse.” - Natalia Malkin [14].
Olga McQueen, working with Brisson and Barry, called the Malkin house again, and this time Natalia answered. She “whispered that she could not talk, and told them that Magnitogorsk officials were there in the home, talking to Malkin” [14]. Velichkin and his assistant, Mr. Kuprianov, had joined the Malkins at their house along with Ushakov at around midnight, and talks continued [15].
“Velichkin came up to my mother and began pressuring her: ‘Convince your son that he has to sign the contract for the sake of the national team, we are paying him good money,’ etc.
“All this time, I was trying to say something but nobody was listening to me: ‘You will play in the Superleague and that’s that.’ From what I could see, they weren’t interested in my opinion at all.
“I kept saying ‘no’ to all the arguments, and so did my mother, while father was leaning towards their opinion, saying: ‘Maybe you will stay?’
“I continued saying ‘no,’ though.” - Evgeni Malkin [15]
On the phone, McQueen reminded Natalia that Geno was legally able to leave at any point, but Velichkin persisted, preying on Geno’s loyalty to his team, town, and country [12].
“We ended up saying: ‘Let’s get back to this tomorrow. Give us some time to think and maybe tomorrow we will sign.’
“Velichkin responded: ‘No, you have to do it now.’
“My mother disagreed, saying that it’s too late now, to which Velichkin told her: ‘Are you kicking me out of the house?’
“‘Of course not,’ said mother, at which point I understood that there is no point trying to explain anything because sooner or later he would’ve forced me to sign the contract.” - Evgeni Malkin [15]
Vladimir apparently insisted Geno remain in Russia. Geno, increasingly aware of how his family was being pressured, began to fold:
“I didn’t get fed up. I signed because I wanted to stop this pressure and didn’t want it to continue every day. I had to practice and prepare for the season instead of endlessly arguing.
“That night their pressure was even more intense. I saw how they tried to influence my parents, and was worried about how they will talk with them if this goes on. Basically it was clear to me that they are ready to continue this for a very long time.” - Evgeni Malkin [15]
After about 5.5 hours of negotiations, Geno signed a one-year contract with Metallurg Magnitogorsk at 2:30 a.m. on August 7, 2006. His new contract annulled his previous contract with the team, which would have kept him in Magnitogorsk through April 2008 [16].
“I was extremely upset when I signed the contract, and afterward. After I signed it, I sent Mr. Kuprianov a text message saying that, ‘On this night, you killed my dream.’” - Evgeni Malkin, [1, 14]
Although Geno had signed the contract, he had no intentions of following through with it; he immediately regretted signing, and called Barry for help. It was then that they began putting in place the plan that would send Geno across an ocean to follow his dream [17].
The next day, Geno refused to answer the phone when Metallurg called [15]. He was eventually summoned to the Metallurg office around 9-10 a.m. and left alone with his coach, Canadian Dave King, and a translator, Igor [20].
“I said, ‘Malk, how do you feel about coming back?’ And he answered, ‘I don’t want to stay.’ So I said, ‘If that’s the case, why did you sign the contract?’
“And he said, ‘There were so many people. I was confused. I know I owe the organization something.’
“All those things were weighing heavily on him. He’s just a young guy. I think he became overwhelmed by it all and signed. The next day he realized what he’d done and the mistake he’d made.
“So I said, ‘In this case here, don’t do what your head says. Do what your heart says. You should be doing what you think is right for you. Think this thing through. The season hasn’t started yet, so it’s not too late.’” - Dave King [20]
PART THREE: THE FLIGHT
On August 10, 2006 (three days after he signed his contract), Geno was sitting in a car with his former Russian agent, Sergei Isakov (not to be confused with his then-current Russian agent, Gennadi Ushakov), and told Isakov that he planned to flee. Isakov spent half an hour trying to convince Geno not to leave on ethical grounds, believing Geno “wasn’t himself” and was “making unreasonable decisions” [18].
Isakov had also seen Geno with Ushakov and Ushakov’s business partner Dmitri Goryachkin in a restaurant, and believed they were discussing the details of his departure [18]. (However, Barry later told a reporter that Ushakov was not involved at all in Geno’s escape [15]. This seems odd, given Ushakov’s years-old intention of getting Geno to play in the NHL, but it could have been said to protect Ushakov from legal repercussions in Russia).
On August 12, 2006, Metallurg returned Geno’s passport so he could fly with the team to Helsinki (Finland) to compete in the Tampere Cup tournament before the Superleague season began. On their way there, Metallurg stopped in Moscow to play a game against a new team, the Wings. Dave King kept his eye on Geno in the locker room, noting Geno was “in a trance” [20].
“I could clearly see that he was thinking, why am I still here, doing this? Not this again. He went out in the game and scored two goals and added an assist, but when he came off the ice there was zero joy in his eyes. Not a smile – and this guy was always smiling. I thought, this is not going the way he wants. I know his heart’s not here for sure” - Dave King [20]
After the game, the team packed up and headed back to the Moscow airport, this time bound for Helsinki. While the players picked up their bags upon their arrival in Finland, they realized Geno had abandoned his luggage… and vanished.
“Afterwards, a lot of people wondered what, if anything, we knew about the circumstances of Malkin’s flight. I didn’t have any inkling of it, but I remember talking to Varlamov, our captain…
“And Varly had a big smirk on his face. He said, ‘He’s going to the NHL.’
“All the guys knew it and not one guy was pissed off, upset, or even surprised. I think they all thought this was the right thing for Malkin – every player, to a man. I think they knew that he was pressured into a decision. There were smiles on everybody’s faces, as if somebody had put something over on someone.
“I thought, Did they know more about this than I did? The team just didn’t skip a beat.” - Dave King [20]
The team noticed a flight was leaving for New York, and believed Geno was on it [20]. He wasn’t. Instead, he had told Barry about the trip to Finland, and Barry had arranged the perfect escape plan:
“I then contacted the American embassy in Helsinki and started the visa process for Evgeni… we rented an apartment and got ahold of some Finnish assistants who organized everything. When Evgeni passed the customs control (at the airport), he saw us right away and approached us.
“The team was just going through the passport control and was picking up its luggage. These situations are always chaotic and it’s hard to look after everyone. Evgeni came up to us and we took him aside, went down the escalators and came out to the van that we had parked before, which took us to the apartment.” - J.P. Barry [15]
Geno, Barry, McQueen, and several Finnish bodyguards Brisson and Barry had hired stayed in the apartment for several days, first waiting for the U.S. Consulate to re-open (the first two days), then waiting for the visa to be processed (the third day), then going through with an interview in the Helsinki embassy [15].
Meanwhile, Geno’s parents were entirely unaware of their son’s plans. Geno left without an explanation, and his cell phone was turned off [19]. What Geno did leave his parents was Geoffrey, his puppy (who they apparently did not want, but took care of anyway) [1]. Both Vladimir and Natalia talked to the media:
“My son simply snapped, his nerves did not hold on. In the last moment, they persuaded him to stay in Magnitka, though his mind was already in the NHL. I understand him, but I don’t support him. It was a childish act. Before I give my final assessment, I need to talk to him personally.” - Vladimir Malkin [19]
“He simply wanted to play in the NHL, but the management of Metallurg played on his patriotic feelings. He was not able to refuse… I still feel that others used my son for their purposes.” - Natalia Malkin [19]
Rumors flew: a Russian tabloid reported Geno was seen in Toronto near an office held by Brisson and Barry, while a tournament official in Helsinki said Geno had departed for New York. When reached for comment, Barry’s Calgary office simply said he was “on vacation” [19].
It wasn’t just Russian media that was clamoring for the story; North American newspapers covered it with fervor, and not all of them were easy on Geno. “He’s a remarkable hockey player,” an ESPN.com source said of him. “But if Malkin gave you his word on anything, then you couldn’t trust him. Look at his history” [28]. An ESPN writer claimed he was “trying too hard to please everyone in his world” and “flip-flopping” [28].
During this, Velichkin noted that according to the two-week notice, Geno was supposed to still be “working” for Metallurg for those two weeks [25]. He filed a lawsuit against the Pittsburgh Penguins, seeking compensation for what he considered “sports terrorism”:
“We’ve put so much effort, resources and money into Malkin’s development as a player. He was our gold diamond, our prize possession. He had a contract with us, we were building the whole team around him and now he is gone.” - Gennadi Velichkin [16]
Velichkin also scoffed at questions about Metallurg pressuring Geno to stay:
“He talks about pressure. What pressure? You can ask militia (Russian police) about pressure. Pressure is when they bang your head against a wall radiator.” – Gennadi Velichkin [24]
The apartment Geno and his cohorts stayed in was mere blocks away from where the Metallurg team was staying [12]. This was exactly why the bodyguards were hired; Barry believed that if the team discovered Geno’s whereabouts, they would resume putting psychological pressure on him to stay [17]. Geno never feared physical harm, but was worried about his family:
“I was very much concerned about my family because I expected Mr. Velichkin to start making phone calls and be not quite polite with my family. I was also worried that lawyers would start calling and contacting my family trying to get them to sign any kind of documents. Which has already happened. They received calls and were asked to sign papers.” - Evgeni Malkin [12]
Thankfully, Geno’s visa came through on Wednesday (August 16, 2006) and two hours later he boarded a flight for LAX (Los Angeles, USA) [12, 24], but only after calling his parents:
“After I had my visa obtained, I called my parents and informed them that everything was fine and I was doing great.” - Evgeni Malkin [17]
That morning (of August 16), the Metallurg office received Geno’s handwritten resignation by fax, once again calling on the two-week contract cancellation window. The law would allow Geno to sign with Pittsburgh on August 30th [24]. The resignation was not taken well by Metallurg. Their team lawyer reportedly threw it in the trash. Velichkin called it a “crude falsification” and claimed that Geno’s signature was false, as he did not believe it resembled Geno’s signature on the contract he had signed under duress on August 7th [25].
When Geno touched down in LA, Barry and Brisson settled him in a hotel and hunkered down to weather the storm. It was a relatively pleasant storm for Geno; he was able to skate with some NHL players (including defenseman Rob Blake and forward Anson Carter), enjoy some steak, find a favorite breakfast place in Venice (a recreational beachfront neighborhood), and swim a lot in his hotel’s pool [12]. He also went bodyboarding for the first time [21].
Despite this, Geno hadn’t left his troubles behind; Metallurg was fully geared up to fight for him, and Metallurg’s attorney said “If he [Geno] wants to sunbathe in Southern California or if he wants to go to college, he can do that. If he wants to work another job, he can do that, too… But if he wants to play professional hockey, he can only do that with Metallurg until the conclusion of the 2007 season” [24].
Geno was in LA for three weeks before he flew out to Pittsburgh on September 5, 2006 to meet his destiny. His first 24 hours were busy: he dined at the Lemieux house, spent the night in Pittsburgh, did an informal early morning skate with players (including Sid!) and then attended a news conference. The Penguins’ training camp started on the 9th [17].
“I believe that anyone who would have such a dream to play in the NHL for a long time would probably have made the same step as I had to do, to follow the dream.” - Evgeni Malkin [12].
“I was not scared to come to America. I was scared what my friends would think of me. I love Russia. It is my country, my home. It was a tough time. But I had a dream, and that was to play for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL.”
- Evgeni Malkin [23]
Pittsburgh would be an adjustment for Geno; according to Sergei Gonchar, “…Russian kids were so used to the (national) team handling everything for them — meals, training, you name it. When they got over here, they didn’t know how to prepare themselves because the freedom of being on your own was not what you were used to” [22]. It was an adjustment Geno was willing to make in order to realize his dream.
When asked what (”aside from a brilliant rookie season with Pittsburgh and a hundred goals”) the best ending to this story would be, Geno said this:
“For Pittsburgh to understand the situation and pay a fair compensation to Metallurg. I don’t know what would be a fair amount, but I hope they will agree on something. And of course the other thing would be for the fans to forgive and understand me.” - Evgeni Malkin [15]
I don’t know, Geno. I think the best ending looks like this:
…and maybe a little like this, too:
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