The KHL is interested in holding games with NHL teams. KHL president Alexei Morozov made the revelation while speaking with Match TV’s Sergey Podgornov. Morozov talked about the process and how it will be difficult to achieve moving forward.

Only three games between KHL and NHL teams have ever occurred. The last took place in 2010 in Russia between SKA Saint Petersburg and the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canes lost that exhibition matchup 5-3.

“We ourselves went out with a proposal to play matches with NHL clubs,” Morozov said to Match TV and as translated by Google Translate. “This task was set by management. The NHL is interested in hosting matches between its teams. We wanted our teams to play NHL clubs.

“We would like Dynamo to play with Washington, for example. We are interested in NHL clubs where there are many Russian stars. But the NHL clubs have their own plans. Their league starts late – in October. We have postponed these conversations.”

Morozov referenced the NHL’s past desire to have its teams play each other in Russia. Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin talked about those discussions earlier this month, revealing that two games between the Caps and St. Louis Blues were planned to take place in Moscow and St. Petersburg before the global pandemic put an end to talks.

“It [was going to happen]. But, unfortunately, it didn’t.” Ovechkin said then. “The only thing left to do was sign the papers.”

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has said in the past that he believed NHL teams would eventually make it over to Russia for games but made to sure to specify that they’d only be playing other NHL teams. “We know there’s great interest in our game there — it would most likely be from our standpoint regular-season games with two NHL teams,” Bettman said.

Morozov wants KHL teams to directly compete with NHL teams akin to that game from 2010 featuring Carolina.

The other issue sidelining this idea is that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is still ongoing. The possibility of hosting games in the country is unlikely to be revisited by the NHL until the war is over. Both Russia and Belarus are banned from all IIHF hockey competitions at the national and club level for the 2023-24 season.

However, Morozov did state that his conversations with the NHL have just been “postponed”.

Headline photo: @stroganovam/Instagram