Peter Bondra, photo by Jon Swensen
From George Gross at the Toronto Sun:
Veteran Ukrainian-born Slovak NHLer Peter Bondra said in Slovakia the other day that all reports of him signing with a Russian team were incorrect. He plans to return to the NHL, preferably to Washington.
As much as any sentimental Washington fan might want to see Bondra finish his career in a Caps uniform, I'm having a hard time figurig out where he might fit. At this point, the only spot where Bondra might fit would be on the second line, but bringing him back would probably mean sacrificing ice time for a younger player who could use the development time -- in this case a player like Eric Fehr.
Of course, I haven't even begun to talk about how Bondra's last negotiation with the team coming out of the lockout, one that saw him bolt for Atlanta after he made some noises about wanting to be here, left a bad taste in a lot of mouths around town.
So, as I've said before, good luck Peter. But I'm afraid the Caps may have already moved on, permanently.
The Toronto Sun writer refers to the Bondra-to-Russia story as “grossly abbreviated”, and refers to “all reports of Bondra signing with a Russian team”.
Actually, the only report I read (not “all reports”) was that a Russian team had OFFERED Bondra a contract. Nowhere did I see that it was reported that Bondra had actually signed.
As the only North American outlet (from what I can tell) that posted the story of Khimik’s offer to Bondra, I felt obligated to make this clarification.