“The ban on team sports, especially those representing Russia, is certainly justified,” he said. “But it would be difficult to exclude hockey players. The hardest thing to justify would be to ban Vasilevskiy or Shesterkin.”
Frye has traveled regularly to Russia since 1985 and has attended half a dozen hockey games there, both before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He said that when he looks at the NHL now, he wonders why Russian players are no longer a discussion in hockey since the invasion, unlike football and tennis.
But he understands why players are reluctant to speak publicly about the situation.
“Individual Russians take a big risk in expressing opposition,” Frye said. “Many of them also have relatives in Russia who are vulnerable, and everyone understands that. There is a high cost in speaking. It’s a real thing.”
Frye said there is also a possibility that players could be excluded from the Russian national teams in the future, such as the Davis Cup tennis, the Olympic teams or the national hockey and football teams. He said that even taking a neutral position is frowned upon and that there is the threat of long prison sentences for those who criticize the invasion.
Despite the conflict and uncertainty, the NHL Russians are still playing.
“It has to be an extremely difficult situation,” Cooper said. “When you have a huge ocean between what’s going on, there’s probably a little bit of a difference.” He added: “Ultimately, it’s about the guys having to do their job. But it can’t be easy. You just feel for everyone.”
There were 327 NHL players born in Russia or the Soviet Union, according to Hockey Reference, and only 26 of them were goalkeepers, starting with Sergei Mylnikov, who made his debut with the Quebec Nordics in 1989. Of the Russian-born goalkeepers. , 10 were active this year (11, including Georgiev, trained in Russia), and all were born after 1993.