Oilers General Manager Craig MacTavish commented on the NHL ruling Vladimir Tkachev's contract inelligible this evening.

"There's a subsection in the CBA that defines prior season. When we looked at it, it looked like Vlad fulfilled all the criteria to sign a Standard Player's Contract," MacTavish began. "He went through the draft -- 30 teams had a chance to draft him -- and he played the prior season in North America, which he did in Moncton.

"But when you go down two paragraphs further, in another subsection of article 8, it defines 'prior season' as a complete season. Vlad had played some games in the KHL and that went unnoticed."

MacTavish added that he felt bad for Tkachev, who had three points in his three NHL games, handling himself well against some tough competition.

"I feel bad for the player because he played so well and he was so excited to be offered an NHL contract," MacTavish remarked.

The unfortunate part for the Oilers was there was no way that he could have signed with Edmonton or any other NHL team, for that matter.

"We didn't miss a deadline or miss an opportunity to sign him but we thought we had the opportunity," the GM stated.

Tkachev's agent also thought that there was an opportunity for Tkachev to sign with an NHL club.

"I spoke with the agent and he read the clause and then stopped reading after it looked like he was eligible."