Bodrov back in the mess

Denis Bodrov was expected to re-sign with the Flyers, but changed his mind and signed with the Moscow Spartak instead. Now he will enter the mess he left behind this past winter. The KHL gave him a 10 game suspension and a fine for over 5.6 million rubles at the time he signed with the Flyers. The reason for the punishment was the secret double contract Bodrov had signed with Lada Togliatti in 2008. The additional contract that paid Bodrov millions of rubles under the table was deemed illegal by the league.

As was reported earlier this season, the KHLPA leader, ex-NHLer Andrei Kovalenko is working hard to help Bodrov.

"The league has sent us a copy of their decision about the punishment on Denis. We will study the document and think how we can help the player to continue his career. I will meet with the representatives of the leadership of the league. There was a decision to disqualify Bodrov, but he was not officially informed about it. Therefore, even the player himself didn't know about the punishment and signed a new contract."

Bodrov himself refuses to comment on the situation.

The Spartak GM Andrei Yakovenko also claims they were not aware of the punishment.

"We signed Denis Bodrov. There is no mention about suspension or fines. No one has told us."

Bodrov's agent Viktor Artemkin says there are no official documents about the punishment.

"I don't underestimate the professional people of the league, but nonetheless, we have no documents about the suspension."

"The league should have informed the players union, me and Denis on their decision already in January. Then we would have filed an appeal immediately. However, we never got any documents."

League official Dmitry Kurbatov says Bodrov's contract has not been registered yet.

"No team has submitted a contract with Denis Bodrov to registration. As soon as that happens, we will register the contract. And the penalties, the suspension and the fine, will become valid. The team that signs Bodrov should understand this clearly: Bodrov will sit on the bench for the first ten games."

Kurbatov says it's too late to file an appeal now.

"He had that opportunity. But all the deadlines for this are long gone and the decision holds."

Kurbatov refused to comment anything about a possible miscommunication or misinformation between the league, the agent and the players union.

Quotes from today's Sovietsky Sport