Russia heads to PyeongChang with Tretiak

23 Jun 2014 | Ivan

On Wednesday, May 18th Vladislav Tretiak was elected as President of Russian Hockey Federation. Russian ice hockey community considers it as, least to say, very controversial outcome.

On Wednesday, May 18th Vladislav Tretiak was elected as President of Russian Hockey Federation (it is called FHR in Russia, I will use this abbreviation further in the text). His opponent Vyacheslav Fetisov managed to convince only 11 from 136 voters that he would be better president than Tretiak. Russian ice hockey community considers it as, least to say, very controversial outcome.

Tretiak keeps his position since the year 2006, when he was elected after Russia had run the 4th at Torino. According, to Tretiak Russian hockey exist for their national team to win. National team is a priority. No matter whether it is Olympics or Eurochallenge, all should be done for the national team. Clubs must pause their competitions, coaches must put Russian players on ice, etc.

With Tretiak Russia was successful at World Cups (titles in 2008, 2009, 2012, and eventually 2014, runner-up in 2010). Despite being considered as a tournament of minor importance, World Cup in Russia is quite popular among people who are not regular hockey watchers, but who pays attention to sports in general. These victories, especially one of 2009, are important in Russia. Some critical opinions like "we play with NHL stars and other teams play with young players" exist, but titles speak for themselves.

At the same time, in both Olympics of Tretiak age in Vancouver and in Sochi Team Russia did not even make it to semifinals, losing correspondingly to Canada (3:7 was a real humiliation for Russian fans) and Finland (even more disappointing defeat, considering home ground). There is a clear downstreak in Russian Olympic performances: silver medals in 1998, bronze medals in 2002, 4th place in 2006 and top-8 only in 2010 and 2014. Looks like Tretiak has done his job (made national team attractive to players and managed to win some minor titles) but he is incapable of making next step and should leave now. But he did not leave.

Meanwhile, if you remember that hockey is not only about national teams, you can say that FHR under Tretiak did not care much about child hockey, amateur hockey, etc., but it was imposing some limitations to major Russian leagues, VHL and KHL, which are not ruled by FHR directly, but they have to cooperate. Fans of Russian clubs and leagues blame Tretiak in wrong priorities, in caring about average players rather about growing young talents.

After defeat in Sochi it was logical to expect some changes in Russian Hockey Federation. However what it did was simply firing coaches and proposing for KHL clubs to have three spots for foreigners, as if five foreigners per team were the reason of Russia's poor performance. Just before World Cup in Minsk rumours that Tretiak will quit his office occured. Despite Russian triumph in Minsk, it still was said by some insiders that Tretiak will be replaced, but when deadline came, Tretiak was the only candidate to vote for. One extra week to register candidates was given and another legend of Soviet hockey - Vyacheslav Fetisov - applied. However it was already clear that Tretiak will win elections, and he did win.

From the way it all happened you can conclude that there was certain political will to replace Tretiak, but eventually it was decided not to rock this boat. What it means is that there won't be any signifficant changes. Current strategical aim for Russia is to win in PyeongChang in 2018. Russian superstars like Malkin and Ovechkin, Kovalchuk and Datsyuk will be in their middle or late thirties by that time, so new generation has to be brought up. With Tretiak it means that limits in the KHL will be kept and nothing will be done for juniors. There are strong hockey schools in Russia, but they are ruled by rich clubs, not by Federation. Players like Tarasenko or Nichushkin appear, but now it is rather an exception than the rule. Due to limit Russian players have big salaries in the KHL and they have no motivation neither to do better (because their place in roster is sage) nor to go to NHL (they have all they need at home). This may put Russia behind its competitors.