[sureLoss]

It is a bit of an interesting quandary for Kranaukhov if he has a choice between Belarus and Russia.

Recall that once he plays for one of these countries at an IIHF sanctioned tournament he is pretty much locked into that country for future IIHF tournaments (World Championships, Olympics, etc). There is a way to switch to another country later on his hockey career but it is a lot of red tape/time involved and you can only switch to another country once.


On one hand, if he plays for Belarus, he likely gets a lot of ice time and will be counted as one of the leaders for that team. However, Belarus isn't exactly a hockey power and likely won't go far in tournaments, but he should be able to get on future teams relatively easy.

On the other hand, if he plays for Russia, he likely goes deep into hockey tournaments getting experience. However, Russia has a lot better and deeper talent pool than Belarus so his ice time might be limited behind other players and it will be harder to make future teams.