While NHL hockey has screeched to a halt many of the world's best players are skating off to Europe where clubs in Russia and Sweden are wooing them with lucrative contracts and expensive perks.
Since the lockout began two weeks ago, close to 180 NHL players have joined European clubs, the International Ice Hockey Federation said on Tuesday.
The figure represents 25 percent of the NHL's skaters and includes superstars Peter Forsberg of Colorado and Markus Naslund of Vancouver who will play for MoDo in their native Sweden.
Forsberg has told MoDo he would play a full season in Europe regardless of the outcome of the NHL labor dispute.
The majority of the NHLers have worked out deals with their new teams that allows them to return to North America if a labor agreement between owners and the players is reached.
The Czech Republic is the most popular alternative league with 49 NHL players, including the New York Rangers' Jaromir Jagr with Kladno; Milan Hejduk of Colorado and Ales Hemsky of Edmonton with Pardubice; Los Angeles Kings' Ziggy Palffy and Josef Stumpel with Slavia Prague; Patrik Elias of New Jersey and Martin Havlat of Ottawa with Znojmesti Orli and Radek Bonk of Montreal with Trinec.
Russia's clubs have bolstered their rosters with 38 NHL players. Topping the list is Ilya Kovalchuk of Atlanta and Alexei Morozov of Pittsburgh with AK Bars Kazan; Pavel Datsyuk of Detroit and Artem Chubarov of Vancouver with Moscow Dynamo; Alexei Semenov of Edmonton and Garth Snow of the New York Islanders with St Petersburg.
Forsberg may not be back this season but others like Kim Johnsson of Philadelphia signed a deal with a Swiss club to Dec. 23 with the hope that the NHL impasse will be over by January next year.
Others like Canadian Daniel Briere of the Buffalo Sabres are testing the waters this week. Briere signed a two-game tryout on Tuesday with SC Bern in Switzerland.
Switzerland's Davos club has attracted some of Canada's brightest young talent in Joe Thornton of the Boston Bruins and Rick Nash of Columbus.
Slovakia's Dukla Trencin instantly became one of Europe's powerhouses when it added superstar countrymen Marian Gaborik of Minnesota, Pavol Demitra of St Louis and Marian Hossa of Ottawa.
The switch to Europe can be a major cultural adjustment as Snow found out.
Snow reportedly signed with St Petersburg for US$500,000 but some of his teammates could be making as little as US$500 a week.
Other NHLers have deals worth one million dollars or more with apartments and luxury cars thrown in as perks, the Toronto Star reported.
"The contracts are really only worth the paper they are printed on," Snow told the Star.
"I've heard of guys showing up from North America, staying for two days and then leaving.
"Russian contracts are supposed to be paid by a certain date but most of the time they are five days or a week late."
The lockout is only a couple of weeks old, but Snow fears the 2004-2005 season is already a writeoff.
"Those [NHL jobs] are great jobs. I can see three sides in this -- the players' side, the side of the upper-tier teams like Detroit and Philadelphia and the side of the lower-tier teams that really want a salary cap."
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