Johan Hedberg is joining the camp of players who claim that reducing NHL salaries will present the KHL with an opportunity to lure NHL stars like Ilya Kovalchuk and Alex Ovechkin. "Look at the comments made by the Russian players," Hedberg said. "If the league won't honor contracts they would lose the best Russians. Maybe all of a sudden you don't have the Russians here. Then the NHL isn't what it used to be. If you want to have the best league in the world and the supreme place to play, I don't these lockouts are helping. There are other leagues around the world getting stronger." Hedberg added that if young Russian players can make comparable money in the KHL, they might be more inclined to simply stay there if guys like Ovechkin and Kovalchuk are in the KHL too. There might come a day when the NHL has to more passionately compete for talent with the KHL, but right now it seems like something the players are saying for the sole purpose of trying to scare the league into making concessions.