Unlike the Washington Capitals (rough week for them), the Canadiens may be getting one of their players out of the KHL for the '09-'10 season. Alexei Emelin is reportedly in negotiations with the Habs to play in North America next season.
Emelin was drafted by Montreal in 2004 (3rd round, 84th overall), but has played in Russia since then. The Canadiens have attempted to bring Emelin over before, with no success.
Playing on the Gagarin Cup winning Ak Bars Kazan of the KHL, Emelin scored only 3 points this year. Scoring is not his thing though. He is a physically aggressive, stay at home defenceman who could be half of a shutdown pairing someday.
If he plays outside of Russia next season, he'll most likely start in the AHL with the Hamilton Bulldogs. It is possible that if the Habs let four or five of their UFA defencemen go, and if they don't sign any replacements, and if Emelin has a good training camp (that's a lot of ifs), then he could hop on the depth chart behind Yanick Weber for the last defence spot.
Montreal currently holds the rights to four other KHL players. Alexander Perezhogin (it'd be good to get him back over here too) had a great season with Ufa Salavat Yulayev, scoring 28 times in 55 games. Pavel Valentenko bolted on Hamilton last season to sign with Moscow Dynamo. Maxim Trunev played with Cheropovets Severstal, and Konstantin Korneev was with CSKA Moscow.
See Emelin's propaganda video below.
Emelin was drafted by Montreal in 2004 (3rd round, 84th overall), but has played in Russia since then. The Canadiens have attempted to bring Emelin over before, with no success.
Playing on the Gagarin Cup winning Ak Bars Kazan of the KHL, Emelin scored only 3 points this year. Scoring is not his thing though. He is a physically aggressive, stay at home defenceman who could be half of a shutdown pairing someday.
If he plays outside of Russia next season, he'll most likely start in the AHL with the Hamilton Bulldogs. It is possible that if the Habs let four or five of their UFA defencemen go, and if they don't sign any replacements, and if Emelin has a good training camp (that's a lot of ifs), then he could hop on the depth chart behind Yanick Weber for the last defence spot.
Montreal currently holds the rights to four other KHL players. Alexander Perezhogin (it'd be good to get him back over here too) had a great season with Ufa Salavat Yulayev, scoring 28 times in 55 games. Pavel Valentenko bolted on Hamilton last season to sign with Moscow Dynamo. Maxim Trunev played with Cheropovets Severstal, and Konstantin Korneev was with CSKA Moscow.
See Emelin's propaganda video below.
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