One of the great Russian hockey clubs will cease operations in 2010. It has been announced that Dynamo Moscow, the oldest hockey club in Russia, will fold due to financial failure.This is huge news, especially in Russia where this is akin to one of the NHL losing one of it's treasured Original Six franchises.
The team's players and assets will be merged with another Moscow based team, HK MVD, who are currently competing for the KHL championship. It is currently unclear how much if any of the Dynamo brand will be incorporated by MVD. Could it be possible the new franchise will retain the history-filled Dynamo name and colors?
Dynamo Moscow alumni include Alexander Maltsev, Alexei Kovalev, Alexei Yashin and Alexander Ovechkin. The club was established in 1946 and were originally sponsored by the KGB. Nine times they won the Russian/Soviet league titles, and twice they won the Spengler Cup.
Special thanks to @dchesnokov
3 comments:
Wow!!! That's just wrong. I think that with all the history and tradition that has come from this league and the fact that it was basically a farm team for the NHL for so many years that they would get some love from the National Hockey League. I know Bettman hasn't always been a vocal supporter of international leagues but come on...? This is bad for hockey.
This makes me very sad -- remember the Dynamo playing the WHA (Gretzky and all) in 1979? I'll ask my Russian hockey journalist friend about the details for this...
@WHA - if you do get more details feel free to share them here. Would love to hear more...
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