A 17-year-old Russian touted as the possible No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 N.H.L. entry draft faces almost certain suspension by the K.H.L. after he refused to sign a contract that contained no clause allowing him to depart for North America.

The player, Kirill Kabanov, was singled out for discipline by K.H.L. president Alexander Medvedev during a Tuesday news conference in Moscow, the latest episode in an ongoing series of K.H.L.-N.H.L. disputes over player contracts.

The request for suspension came from regular-season champions Salavat Yulaev Ufa, to whom Kabanov has not reported after he was traded from Spartak Moscow earlier this summer.

Kabanov’s father and agent, Sergei Kabanov, explained to the Russian television channel Vesti Sport last week that the forward would not report to Salavat unless the club offers him a “normal contract.” The elder Kabanov said, “Our condition remains the same: a free departure for Kirill to the N.H.L. without any compensation.”



Starting this season, standard K.H.L. contracts contain clauses tying players to clubs until they reach 28. A player under that age can leave his club, but only after arranging for the club to be paid “compensation,” a mutually agreed-upon figure that would amount to a transfer fee.

“The disciplinary committee will consider the case,” Medvedev said of Kabanov, who is currently listed by The Hockey News as the No. 2 prospect in next year’s draft. “I do not want to anticipate their decision, but from the circumstances that are familiar to me, no choice remains beyond Kabanov being disqualified for an unprecedented violation of league rules.”

Medvedev said that K.H.L. contracts contain no provision for players leaving for leagues outside the country. “There are no insurmountable barriers to playing hockey in the N.H.L. or any other league,” he said, “but certain conditions must be met — in this case, the payment of compensation.”

Medvedev criticized the N.H.L. for its “double standard” with regard to Russian contracts. He cited recent disputes involving defenseman Bryce Lampman, who signed with St. Louis last month even though the K.H.L. maintains that Lampman still has a valid contract with Amur Khabarovsk; Sergei Shirokov, who earned a two-year K.H.L. suspension by leaving CSKA Moscow to sign with Vancouver earlier this month; and Denis Parshin, who ultimately re-signed with CSKA rather than jump to Colorado.

“We are stressing to the N.H.L. that lawlessness is not in their interest,” Medvedev said in discussing Kabanov and the other contract disputes. “And we we will not succumb to their provocations.”

The Moncton Wildcats of the Quebec major junior league were hoping that Kabanov would join them this season. “It’s a work in progress,” Wildcats coach Danny Flynn told The Moncton Times and Transcript last week. “The boy very much wants to come to Moncton and the Canadian Hockey League and we’re quietly working hard to make that happen.”

Last year as a 16-year-old, Kabanov played six regular-season and four playoff games for Spartak, registering no points. However, in seven games for Russia at the I.I.H.F. U18 World Championship, he went 4+7=11 with a plus-5 mark and 18 PiM.

Earlier this month at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament for U18 players in the Czech and Slovak Republics, Kabanov scored a hat trick against the U.S. in the opener but was not a factor in the 9-2 loss in the gold medal game after being leveled by Canada defenseman Brock Beukeboom.

Salavat’s new coach is Vyacheslav Bykov, who also coaches the Russian national team.