After the loud and bright victory of the Washington Capitals over The Philadelphia Flyers, which increased the capital's chances of getting into the playoffs, received some news from the Caps camp. One of them is long-awaited and joyful. Russian forward Evgeny Kuznetsov has reached the final stage of treatment as part of the National Hockey League's player assistance program and has received permission to resume training with the team.
A few hours later, another piece of news came from the Capitals related to the name of Kuznetsov. But there is little positive in it anymore.
Washington management decided to put the star Russian forward in the waiver draft. League rules state that within 24 hours of a player entering the waiver draft, any NHL club can pick him up if someone has a similar desire and a place on the payroll. Otherwise, the hockey player may be sent to a farm club in the AHL. In the case of Washington, we will talk about the Hershey Bears.
Another theoretical scenario could be a contract buyout. However, for a club — especially for Washington, which has no room to maneuver under the salary cap — this is an extremely undesirable measure. The Capitals camp has already noted that they do not set themselves the goal of terminating the contract with Kuznetsov. If none of the NHL clubs wants to take the Russian from the waiver draft, then he will go to Hershey. Which, naturally, will not suit Evgeny himself. But there are practically no contenders for it. Financially, at most three clubs can afford to acquire Kuznetsov, but each of them is not at all interested in the services of the Russian hockey player. Especially considering the fact of his problems.
And there are many of them, and they have been pursuing the Russian for a long time. Back in May 2019, Kuznetsov was considered an absolute superstar, and in terms of his skill and talent, he claimed to be able to qualitatively replace Evgeni Malkin as the leading center forward in all of hockey Russia. But the subsequent well-known story seemed to cancel out his entire career. Disqualification, questions from the media, tons of criticism from fans, unstable play, low performance, injuries, loss of a place in the lineup, psychological problems and loss of the opportunity to find his former self — the same Kuzya who can turn the game upside down. This season, Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery has already benched Evgeniy in order to give him a moment for a psychological reboot. The effect was only temporary, but for the club the Russian remained a suitcase without a handle. Therefore, now the parties are going big.
According to Washington general manager Brian McLellan, the Russian forward wants to start everything from scratch, and therefore he almost himself asked to put him in the waiver draft:
«We are dealing with a story that has been going on for some time. And it is frustrating on both sides. For us, this is a way to start over, to give Evgeniy the opportunity to reinvent himself in a new club. I believe Kuzya is putting things in order in his personal life and in the game. He needs to reach the level at which he is used to performing. Putting Evgeni in the waiver draft is the way to achieve what he wants.»
Brian McLellanGeneral Manager » Washington Capitals»
On the one hand, Kuznetsov will turn only 32 years old this year. At this age, you can still restart your career more than once. For example, Artemy Panarin, Evgeniy’s peer and fellow member of the legendary 2011 champion youth team, who talked about his problems with mental health, noticeably worked on himself and his psychology last summer and reached a completely new level. On the other hand, over the past couple of years Kuzya has not moved forward in this regard. And there are no guarantees that he can now. That’s why it’s more offensive and annoying to realize what kind of talent the hockey world is missing. Kuznetsov achieved a lot in his time, but could have been content with much more.