More Malkin Madness - Velichkin weighs in

According to an ESPN article (via Reuters), Gennady Velichkin, the general director of Metallurg, has weighed in on the absence of Evgeni Malkin from the Metallurg training camp. Velichkin blames the Penguins, along with Malkin's North American agents and most of the cast of Sesame Street for Malkin's apparent defection. Okay, maybe I was kidding on that last one... Velichkin promised that his team would be seeking compensation through the court system. This is slightly curious to me for two reasons:

1. Velichkin is assuming that Malkin is coming to North America. He's the only one that is stating that as a certainty, because as far as I know, no one is reporting on the whereabouts of Evgeni Malkin.
2. All Malkin would have to do it tender notice again and he'd be free of the one year contract he signed last week.

Here are some of the choice quotes, straight from Velichkin:

"We're all in shock. The players, coaching staff are also very upset because for four days Malkin was training with the team and suddenly he is gone without saying a word to anyone."

"We've put so much effort, resources and money into Malkin's development as a player. He was our gold diamond, our prize possession. He had a contract with us, we were building the whole team around him and now he is gone"

and my personal favorite:

"They all like to talk about democracy, the American way and then they shamelessly steal our best players. This is pure sports terrorism"

Of course, instead of saying they want their player back, as he is the person they "were building the whole team around", he instead had this to say:

"But don't think we'll just sit there and do nothing. We'll go to court to get what we believe is proper compensation."

"In soccer, a fee for a player of Malkin's caliber would be into tens of millions of dollars. He is a franchise player and we won't be satisfied with anything less."

So, in a surprise to absolutely no one, the Russians have made it clear they really don't care about Malkin as a person. All they really care about is getting what they deem to be enough money for him.

Somehow I doubt this will end anytime soon.