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Can a KHL player sign with an NHL team as a UFA before NHL trade deadline ?


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I am wondering if a player from the KHL say for example, Nikolai Zherdev would be able to sign on with an NHL club beofre the NHL trade deadline.

This would be assuming Zherdev's team misses the Playoffs in the KHL, though I have no idea when the NHL trade deadline is this season.

Also I am aware a player is under contract to a KHL team up to May 1st of the final year of a contract, though players in the past if team's have been eliminated or missed the Playoffs have had a mutual termination of a contract think Dmity Orlov. So it is possible for in Zherdev's case to miss the Playoffs and be available to an NHL team before the deadline.

Is there any rule against UFA's signing with an NHL team that late ? is it just players whom are NHL team property think last year Boston's Carl Soderberg, maybe this year with Kuznestov in Washington.

Any insight would be great, thanks.

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I don't know all the details, but a player having played in another league during the NHL season would have to clear waivers to play in the NHL (Nabokov comes to mind in a regular season, but also O'Reilly).

If the player has an out in their contract I don't see leaving their KHL team being an issue, but if they don't then the NHL would likely respect the NHL/KHL agreement not to poach each other's players. That's tenuous at best on the Russian side, but the NHL won't give them any reason to just ignore it completely in future.

And the trade deadline should be late February (usually is) or very early March next year, so I'm not sure if the KHL playoff picture will be ruled out for any of the bottom teams by that point. I don't think we'll see a lot of players coming over unless they're from lesser leagues, like the Swiss league or Germany or something.

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I can't remember how it all works but I remember two years back Turris holding out on a contract with the ducks as he wanted a trade, and if he wasn't signed by a certain day (earlier than TD) he would be unable to play with any NHL club, Anaheim eventually caved sending him to Ottawa. I would have to assume this rule is the same for all unsigned FA's

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I can't remember how it all works but I remember two years back Turris holding out on a contract with the ducks as he wanted a trade, and if he wasn't signed by a certain day (earlier than TD) he would be unable to play with any NHL club, Anaheim eventually caved sending him to Ottawa. I would have to assume this rule is the same for all unsigned FA's

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