Nick Shore, former NHLer who's been playing in the KHL this season, has decided to skip out on the league's playoffs. Shore had a one-year deal with Novosibirsk Sibir and had been having a pretty good season, scoring 10 goals and recording 26 points in 49 games. He was the team's leading scorer when he left to represent USA at the Olympics. However, with his team set to start its playoff run Tuesday, Russian media reports he's leaving the country.
According to
Sport24.ru, Shore requested that his contract be terminated. There is at least one other American left in the KHL (Nick Bailen of, Traktor Chelyabinsk) along with a few Canadian players. The US has told all of its citizens to leave Russia for their own safety. Canada has a notice on its website stating its citizens should avoid all non-essential travel to Russia and strongly advises anyone there to "evaluate if your presence is essential."
SKA St. Petersburg has two Canadians on its team (Matt Robinson, Linden Vey), as well as others from different parts of Europe. However, head coach Roman Rotenberg told
Championat that everything is in order.
"Here is a personal matter for everyone, everything is in order with us (with the foreign players). We've been through similar situations during the pandemic. We work, we train. For us, sports is out of politics. Now preparations are underway for the playoffs, all thoughts are only about this," said Rotenberg.
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Shore is a former third-round draft pick of the LA Kings. Besides LA, he also played for Ottawa, calgary, Toronto, and Winnipeg before leaving the NHL to continue his career overseas.
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