Slava Voynov, suspended indefinitely by the NHL for domestic violence, has notified the league he’s done playing with the Los Angeles Kings and is returning to Russia.
“Earlier today, I notified the National Hockey League, the National Hockey League Players’ Association and the Los Angeles Kings of my decision to immediately begin the formal process of returning to Russia with my family. I sincerely apologize to those in and around the game of hockey, who have been affected by my situation, and I also wish the Players of the LA Kings success in the future.”
The Kings released a statement today saying they were going to terminate Voynov’s contract, but they let Voynov do it himself.
“During this period of detention, the Los Angeles Kings decided he would no longer play for the team.
The method by which we would ensure this outcome was something we carefully considered and we established a deadline of Sept. 17 — the beginning of our 2015-16 training camp — to reach this outcome. Recently it became evident to us that our conclusion to this process would be to terminate Mr. Voynov’s Standard Player’s Contract. However, Mr. Voynov’s announcement today of his intention to leave the United States and return to Russia makes the termination unnecessary.”
As ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun notes, Los Angeles could retain Voynov’s NHL rights while he’s in Russa, since they didn’t terminate the contract themselves.
Jeff Solomon says short answer, Voynov 'is not on our team, not on our cap.'
— Helene Elliott (@helenenothelen) September 17, 2015
Should the team keep his rights, the Kings would seem to care more about retaining an asset than actually fully moving on from this vile situation, which is a sad reflection on the organization.
