Vladimir Sobotka is reportedly leaving the NHL to play in the KHL with Omsk. The St. Louis Blues made several offers to the forward, but ultimately Sobotka chose more money in order to play in the KHL.
The Blues apparently made several offers to Sobotka, some of which ranged above an average of $3 million a season.
Armstrong on Sobotka….says he offered contracts ranging from 1-5 years. 3yr deal offered north of $3 million per #stlblues
— Andy Strickland (@andystrickland) July 10, 2014
The offers, all of which sound like they were more than fair, were no match for a Russian offer believed to be worth approximately $6 million in the NHL.
Early indications several weeks ago was that Sobotka was being offered in the neighborhood of $4 mill to play in #KHL (equiv to 6+ in NHL)
— Andy Strickland (@andystrickland) July 10, 2014
Details are still emerging on this story, but it sounds like Sobotka will have the option to return to the NHL after each year of his new deal. For now, it looks like Sobotka wanted more money and even though he was destined to receive some pretty flattering offers in free agency, he decided to make the jump from the NHL to the KHL.
The Steve Ott news broke first, but it looks like it was a direct response to Sobotka’s departure. Ott may be a bit overpaid and lacks some of the speed and offensive talent of Sobotka, but he at least patches the skill lost on draws.
As I mentioned on Twitter, the Blues offered Sobotka some reasonable deals. He turned them down. Sobe it.
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