Carolina and Seattle play in Helsinki tonight, in a country whose federation has just refused to play Russia. The defending Stanley Cup champions will take the ice with three Russian-born players on the roster.
Teemu Selanne says he put that to the NHL’s deputy commissioner in person. Jari Kurri, asked twice about Russia’s return to international hockey, would not say a word.
The question that reached Bill Daly
Both men were in Toronto on Monday for the Hall of Fame induction, which is where Ilta-Sanomat found them.
Selanne, who thinks the boycott front is a natural reaction, told the paper that he had raised the Helsinki games directly with Bill Daly: whether Carolina’s three Russians should be kept out of them. His own view is that they should not be. He sees them as club players rather than national-team players, closer to the Russians who have carried on competing in tennis and golf as individuals.
“It would feel wrong if Russia were to play after such a long time, when nothing has changed,” he said of the international question. On the club question he was more careful: “There are surely many different opinions on this, and it is not easy to say what is right or wrong.”
The three players in question
| Player | Position | No. | Born |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andrei Svechnikov | Right wing | 37 | Barnaul |
| Alexander Nikishin | Defence | 21 | Orel |
| Pyotr Kochetkov | Goaltender | 52 | Penza |
Nobody has suggested the three will not play. There has been no statement from the NHL, from Carolina, or from the Finnish federation about them, and Selanne was describing a conversation rather than reporting a decision.
The two games are at Veikkaus Arena, tonight and on Saturday, the first NHL games in Helsinki since 2018. Each roster has two Finns: Sebastian Aho and Jesperi Kotkaniemi for the champions, Kaapo Kakko and Eeli Tolvanen for Seattle.
Why Kurri’s silence is the louder answer
Kurri was asked whether Russia should be allowed back. He was then asked whether Finland’s federation had taken the right position in refusing to play them. He declined both.
“Luckily my opinion is not needed on this question,” he said. “The IIHF will surely make a decision. Let us wait for it.” On the Finnish stance: “I do not want to comment. It is pointless for everyone to speculate.”
He is entitled to that. But Ilta-Sanomat put his answers next to his own history, and the juxtaposition is hard to miss. Kurri was Jokerit’s general manager and then its majority owner through the club’s years in the KHL, and he sat on the KHL’s own board. The paper notes that Jokerit’s time in Russia was financed by oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin’s administration.
Seven countries, one weekend, no answer
The wider picture has not stood still. Finland and six other European federations have said they will not play Russia, Canada has said it will keep Russian players out of the junior world championship in December, and Latvia has gone furthest of all, because its own law forbids its teams from facing Russia at all.
Meanwhile, Pekka Rinne was inducted in Toronto on Monday, one of six in the Class of 2026 and, by his own count in his speech, “just the fourth Finnish born player to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.” The other three are Kurri, Selanne and Riikka Sallinen.
Carolina faces Seattle at Veikkaus Arena tonight. Here is how to follow the Hurricanes this season, in Helsinki and after it.
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