Brashear flies to Russia next week to sign with KHL (update)

 Sport-Express, May 5, 12009:

As it was announced by the general manager of Chekhov club Alexei Zhamnov yesterday Donald Brashear and his agent plan to fly to Russia to sign the contract with Vityaz Checkov. 37-year-old Brashear had played more than 1000 games in the NHL, earning nearly 2700 penalty minutes.


ESPN photo

One of the best fighters in the NHL history Brashear has already agreed in principle to continue his career in the KHL.

Chekhov got another famous tough guy Chris Simon last summer, recalls "SE" correspondent Alexander Shapiro.

Chekhov Capitals?

Here's the link to Vityaz fan's web site... and the official web site of Checkov Vityaz.


Update:

Corey Masisak, TWT, May 5, 2009:

There was a report in the Russian newspaper Sport-Express this morning that Donald Brashear will fly to Russia next week and sign a contract with the KHL club Chekov.

"That's news to me," said Boudreau. "To me, that's a total fallacy because I haven't heard anything about it."

Here's the link to actual video where Bruce is saying that.

Another update:
Mike Wise's online chat at WaPo, May 5, 2009:

The report that a Russian team in the KHL is interested in signing Brashear is accurate, from what I know.

Deep down, I don't think Donald wants to go and wishes George McPhee would sign him for another year. But with all the people the Caps have to pay he might be taking a paycut of almost 50 percent to stay aboard.

And if that's case -- and you know you've got maybe a few years left to earn money in your profession -- maybe going somewhere for a few million dollars and a guaranteed deal of two or more years makes sense financially. Especially if you're trying to ensure your two young boys don't have to worry about their education.

Personally, I hope the Caps ante up in some way, because I know Ovechkin would hate to lose him. Even at 37, he considers him a real deterrent for the roughhouse guys who want to take a run at many of the team's skill players. And while Erskine is starting to fill that role, Tarik El-Bashir tells me he has a problem with concussions.

So, really, who knows? I think much of it depends of how far the Caps go and whether Brash comes back to play in this series or the next series. If not, I wouldn't be surprised if he weren't resigned.

And here we have a final (hopefully) update:
By Lindsay Applebaum | May 5, 2009; 5:03 PM ET, Capitals Insider:

Earlier today, Russian newspaper Sport-Express reported that suspended Caps enforcer Donald Brashear was flying out to Russia to sign with the KHL's Vityaz Checkov.

Coach Bruce Boudreau responded to the rumor at practice, saying: "To me, it's a total fallacy because I haven't anything about it."

And now please excuse this journalistic game of telephone, but Brashear sent a text message to Mike Wise and said the report is completely false. Wise then sent a text message to Tarik, who called me to put it on the blog. So there you have it, straight from the source. Kind of.

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