Capitals’ top pick remains at home

The Washington Capitals' top draft pick, Russian phenom Alexander Ovechkin, likely will skip the club's rookie camp that begins July19.

Ovechkin instead will train with his Russian Super League team, Dynamo Moscow, as well as train to play for that country's entry in the World Cup of Hockey that begins in September.

Dynamo owns the rights to Ovechkin for at least another season, and the 18-year-old left wing cannot play for the Caps until the Russian club transfers those rights to Washington.

Ovechkin could train with the Caps, but he is reluctant to come to the United States because of the labor dispute that is expected at least to delay the start of the NHL season.

Anatoly Kharchyuk, the president of Dynamo Moscow, yesterday said the club would ask for $2 million or more for the rights to the left wing.

The Caps have said they would not negotiate with Ovechkin until the NHL and its labor union reach a new collective bargaining agreement.

The demand from Dynamo Moscow was not unexpected, and the amount even fell below what some hockey observers believed the club would ask.

"Under the old deal, we would have got only $200,000 for such a great player like Ovechkin," Kharchyuk told the Russian daily Sovietsky Sport. "Such a sum is clearly inadequate. We think he is worth at least $2 million."

The agreement to which Kharchyuk referred was the transfer fee system that used to exist between the NHL and various national federations governed by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

Federations are paid fees on a sliding scale that depends on how high a player is drafted, but the fees are paid only when a player is signed. How the fees are divided among federation members varies from country to country.

However, the contract between the IIHF and the NHL expired after last season, allowing individual countries or teams to charge whatever they feel the market will bear to grant a player freedom to play elsewhere.

This appears to be exactly what Dynamo Moscow is doing.

Ovechkin was taken by the Caps with the first pick overall in the June 26 draft. He is the only teenager on the Russian national team, which speaks volumes about Ovechkin's level of play at such an early age (he turns 19 on Sept. 17).

He was reputed to be the best player available in the draft since Mario Lemieux was taken by Pittsburgh in 1984.

The league's unresolved labor dispute with its players union will result in a lockout starting Sept. 15 if a new collective bargaining agreement is not worked out. The consensus is that if a lockout takes place, it could last a full season or more.

Faced with those prospects, it would appear logical for the Russian star to resume training with his Dynamo teammates, prepare for a new season there and forget for the time being his dream to play in the NHL.

Caps general manager George McPhee yesterday declined to comment on the demand from Dynamo, saying he stood by remarks he made after the draft in Raleigh, N.C.

"We're not doing anything until we get a new CBA and a new IIHF agreement," McPhee said at the draft. "There's a lot of uncertainty. We'll wait until we see what the new [agreements] look like and do what's in the best interest of the club."