KHL Could Block Players From Participating In Olympics If Russia Is Banned

The KHL may consider blocking its players from participating in the upcoming Olympics if the Russian Federation is banned from participating as a result of the doping scandal from the 2014 Games, Sport-Express’ Igor Eronko reports (Twitter link).  The league has scheduled a lengthy break during the season (from January 24th through February 25th) to coincide with the event so even if they do stop their players from going, all of them will still be off for a month.

While that would clearly take Russia out of the equation, it would also wreak havoc on several other countries that are likely to draw from KHL teams as well.  For the Karjala Cup (which teams are using as a pre-Olympics camp) that gets underway next week, Canada has 16 KHL players on their roster while Finland has 13, Sweden has 11, and the Czech Republic has nine.  The United States, Switzerland, and Slovenia all have players in that league as well.

Although the possibility exists for athletes from countries that are barred from participating to play under a neutral flag, Russian players would not do so, Gennady Timchenko, chairman of the KHL Board of Directors and vice-president of Russia’s Olympic Committee, told R-Sport (link in Russian).  In an interview with Eronko (link in Russian), IIHF President Rene Fasel stated that if Russia was not allowed to participate, they would not be replaced by another country for the tournament.

A final decision has not been made by the International Olympic Committee regarding Russia’s eligibility just yet nor has the KHL officially decided that they would block all of its players from participating in response to a ban though league president Dmitry Chernyshenko told Eronko (Twitter link) that he is prepared to do so if it comes to it.  However, it appears that there is at least a chance that an already weaker Olympics in terms of availability of players could find itself drawing from even less of a talent pool.