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By Scott Burnside | ESPN.com
And people think that Bettman does not hate the Red Wings...
BOCA RATON, Fla. -- On the one hand, the potential return of erstwhile Nashville Predators winger Alexander Radulov can be seen as a long-awaited righting of a great wrong.
On the other, and specifically if you happen to be a team that may be facing the Predators come playoff time, the talented player's ability to return so late in the regular season after being AWOL since the end of the 2007-08 season, is a miscarriage of justice.
Either way, the league's updating of Radulov's status during Tuesday's GMs meeting in Florida stands as a potentially defining moment in terms of the balance of power in the Western Conference -- assuming the prodigal forward actually decides to return to his NHL home.
Radulov's Kontinental Hockey League team has been eliminated from the playoffs, and the NHL has ruled that Radulov can return directly to the Predators without having to pass waivers and can play in the playoffs. His return would also burn off the end of Radulov's entry level contract making him a restricted free agent this summer and in line for a healthy pay raise.
So all the stars appear to be aligning for the player who has been widely described as the best player not playing in the NHL to return to the NHL.
"In my gut, if there's going to be a time, it should be now," Nashville GM David Poile said Tuesday. "All the things are aligned. The playoffs [in the KHL] are over, the hurdles are cleared. He can burn off the year, get himself to free agency.
"More important than all of that, I've always felt like he was going to come back. From the day he left I always felt he would come back to the best league in the world.
And people think that Bettman does not hate the Red Wings...
BOCA RATON, Fla. -- On the one hand, the potential return of erstwhile Nashville Predators winger Alexander Radulov can be seen as a long-awaited righting of a great wrong.
On the other, and specifically if you happen to be a team that may be facing the Predators come playoff time, the talented player's ability to return so late in the regular season after being AWOL since the end of the 2007-08 season, is a miscarriage of justice.
Either way, the league's updating of Radulov's status during Tuesday's GMs meeting in Florida stands as a potentially defining moment in terms of the balance of power in the Western Conference -- assuming the prodigal forward actually decides to return to his NHL home.
Radulov's Kontinental Hockey League team has been eliminated from the playoffs, and the NHL has ruled that Radulov can return directly to the Predators without having to pass waivers and can play in the playoffs. His return would also burn off the end of Radulov's entry level contract making him a restricted free agent this summer and in line for a healthy pay raise.
So all the stars appear to be aligning for the player who has been widely described as the best player not playing in the NHL to return to the NHL.
"In my gut, if there's going to be a time, it should be now," Nashville GM David Poile said Tuesday. "All the things are aligned. The playoffs [in the KHL] are over, the hurdles are cleared. He can burn off the year, get himself to free agency.
"More important than all of that, I've always felt like he was going to come back. From the day he left I always felt he would come back to the best league in the world.
