Quote:
Originally Posted by OptimalTates
I don't buy that argument at all. It's not like being drafted by Buffalo forced Mogilny to defect. It gave him a choice, one he took.
Being drafted and getting the resources from an NHL team behind them probably gives them a better chance at making it over to North America if they so chose instead of being an "unnamed" random non-NHL affiliated player trying to get here.
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Mogilny was drafted at a time when tensions between the USSR and the west were thawing a lot, under Gorbachev. Calgary drafted Pryakhin the same draft and he was even given permission to come over. In fact, he played NHL hockey before Mogilny.
Russia under Putin during wartime is a different animal altogether.