Kasatonov asks approval for NHL move
MATTHEW FISHER - - The Globe and Mail.
August 17, 1989
The Soviet Red Army has finally agreed to let forward Vladimir Krutov play in the National Hockey League , but now another Soviet superstar has asked to play in North America.
Krutov, a high scoring 29-year-old left winger, hopes to sign an NHL contract with Vancouver Canucks' general manager Pat Quinn in the next few days in Moscow, hockey sources here said yesterday.
But it has not been decided whether Krutov must negotiate the deal through Sovintersport, like many Soviet athletes competing in the West, or through the Red Army hockey club.
Another of Red Army's best hockey players, defenceman Alexei Kasatonov, has surprised his team by asking it to add his name to the list of Soviet players seeking permission to play in the NHL.
Kasatonov's professional rights are owned by the New Jersey Devils, who already have signed his defence partner, Vyacheslav Fetisov, and another Soviet national team defenceman, Sergei Starikov.
Other Soviets who have been given permission to move to the NHL are Sergei Makarov, who has signed with the Calgary Flames, and Igor Larionov, who left Moscow yesterday to begin his professional career in Vancouver after an emotional farewell party at his home Tuesday night.
Although Krutov made it known months ago that he no longer wanted to play in the Soviet Union, some friends in Moscow say he did not make his case as forcefully to Soviet hockey authorities as to his teammates.
Kasatonov's request for his release from the Army has surprised Soviet hockey officials and fans. The 30-year-old major was widely regarded as a career military man, like retired goalkeeper Vladislav Tretiak.
''He was thought to be the safest of all, because he was thought of as a soldier,'' Michel Bordeleau, a Canadian acquaintance of Kasatonov, said yesterday. ''But he's seen the success the others have had in getting visas.'' If Kasatonov leaves, not one player from last winter's starting five will be with the Soviet national team. The departures leave a huge rebuilding job for coach Victor Tikhinov, who is known to have argued frequently with those players now headed to North America.
Tikhinov and the national team have just returned from Finland, where the Soviets won all five games against Finnish club teams.
The only rookie assured of a place on the Soviet team this year is Pavel Bure, an 18-year-old Army winger who played on a line with Alexander Mogilny at last winter's world junior tournament in Alaska before Mogilny defected to the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL.
''Bure's a bright star in the Soviet style with speed, technique and skill,'' a Soviet hockey journalist said yesterday. ''He's not big, but maybe a bit more than (Valeri) Kharlamov,'' the late Soviet star of the early 1970s.
Other young candidates for a place on the Soviet team this winter include Vyacheslav Kuzlov, a 17-year-old winger with Chemik, centre Alexai Kudashov, 18, of Wings of the Soviet, and defenceman Sergei Zubov, 19, of Red Army.
Perhaps the most talented Soviet teen-ager of all is Pavel Bure's 15- year-old brother, Valeri, but because of his age it will be several years before he plays hockey with the national team. The Bures are of German ancestry.
''We need about 10 new players,'' for the national team, the journalist said. ''I think our future now is not good because at the last national championships, we lacked bright stars. Most of these players are too young yet to help our national team.''
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