It's always been a cool feature that EA includes leagues from around the world in the NHL series. Not only does it make the drafting and franchise process more accurate, but it gives a flavor for the different leagues, teams and players from the entire spectrum of professional hockey. Scouting in a franchise mode is properly realized since you can focus on various positions that are a strength of specific leagues. Rosters are also more complete, since some international players split their time between leagues in their home country and in the NHL — sometimes in the same season. Having all of these players means a better overall product.

To this end, it was a welcome addition when EA had the Russian Super League as a part of the NHL 09 product. It allowed for much more accurate rosters, and it was possible to track former NHL players who were looking for work across the pond. The RSL was a popular haven for journeyman NHL players and random pros, plus it was a meaningful talent pool for emerging stars several years back.
 

Now that the Russian league is called the Kontinental Hockey League and has a wider reach across the former Soviet Union, it has a much firmer place in the modern hockey landscape. The league, which was officially branded in 2008, has links to the NHL in various ways. There are players who are now wowing the NHL who started in the KHL (Nail Yakupov), players who took a trip through the league during the lockout (Pavel Datsyuk), and players who have decided to leave the NHL and head back to the homeland (Alexander Radulov). However you look at it, the KHL and the NHL have a shaky truce that connects both leagues through a shared pool of talent.

An argument can certainly be made that the KHL has just as much relevance today as the AHL, WHL, OHL, QMJHL and the Swedish Elite League. This makes it all the more unfortunate that the KHL doesn't have a presence in the current NHL games. Once the Russian Super League was removed from the NHL series (after the league became the KHL), both EA and the NHL were clearly unable to acquire rights to put the new KHL in the games.

As recently as two years ago, there was a company called Life Sports in Russia that was supposedly making a KHL game. Based on the timing of this 2011 announcement, one has to believe that developers and marketers of this product felt they could cash in on the NHL lockout and the deluge of players they were about to get. The press release emphasized stars like Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Alexander Semin and “other NHL players.” There has been no word, as of this writing, as to the status of this KHL product.
 

Photo Credit: eakhl.com

For EA's part, they issued a statement back in March of this year on their Facebook page stating the following: “The dev team takes a close look at all potential leagues to include in the game every year. That's a great league and hopefully we'll be able to get them in one year!” While this message sounds optimistic, it's hard to really believe that the NHL, KHL and EA are going to work through their troubles anytime soon. I suspect EA only had to spend minimal money to acquire some of the smaller international leagues, and the relationship between the NHL and the Swedish league, for example, is probably on a much more stable footing.

The KHL and NHL have been on rocky ground over the last few years, and the change in 2008 to the KHL created a new identify for the Russian league. More and more they've been attempting to distance themselves from the NHL product, and including their players, teams and logos in the main NHL game runs counter to what they're trying to accomplish. My sense is that there is probably a dollar amount the NHL or EA could pay to work this out, but that asking price is likely way off base for the financial return that would be gained. None of this is helped by the KHL actively antagonizing the NHL by trying to sway players to stay around with large sums of money, nor is it helpful when the NHL is trying to take a higher-than-thou approach by saying they feel disrespected. There's no stable transfer agreement between the leagues, and it's pretty much a free-for-all when it comes to player signing and defections.

Still, the lack of KHL in EA games isn't stopping some fans from making the best of it, as you've got eakhl.com, a site which provides a full franchise league based off KHL teams and players. The site offers statistical breakdowns, pictures, videos and reports on a simulated KHL league, and it appears that most of the players of the KHL have been created and tweaked. The site even hosts custom rosters, goal horns and arena songs for download and use.
 

Photo Credit: eakhl.com

But what would a KHL mode look like in EA's game? It would add some much-needed perspective and freshness to the franchise and Be-A-Pro modes, and it would even create an international vibe when your career character was pondering contract negotiations from more than just North American teams. Users would have to adjust to the slight variation in rules for the KHL as well, including stricter officiating (creating less low hits and injuries), no-touch icing and larger rink sizes (although some KHL rinks are getting smaller now).

These gameplay changes could be complemented by the difference in geography, economy and franchise expectation for Be-A-GM and franchise modes. Obviously the NHL wouldn't want to highlight lockouts and such, but there could be an element of “poaching” North American players at key points in the season (free agents, etc.) to bolster your KHL club. Development resources, budgets and franchise expectations would all be different, especially considering the “unique” ownership of many teams in the KHL. This is all to say nothing of the possibilities for presentation for a KHL mode, which could highlight the denseness of the arenas and the occasionally “football-like” nature of the fans during some games. Also: authentic announcers, anyone?

It's fun to spitball about what a mode like this could be, but it won't ever be a reality until the NHL and the KHL sort out their player transfer situation and establish some mutual trust. The KHL is brazenly striking out on its own, trying to be a major player in the hockey landscape, and the NHL wants to hold on to the top-tier European players that might have wandering eyes for the large payouts and hometown feeling that awaits them. The end result ends up being a hockey product from EA that is missing an important component of the hockey world — one that may prove even more influential in the next five to ten years.