The Winter Classic is enough of a “distraction” for us this coming season. We won’t be touring Russia.
We don’t pick Russians in the draft because we want to make “PR news.” We picked Russians because our scouts work hard and we develop a board with the best available players. That is what we do – we take the best player available, period. End of story. No PR moves. Only moves to help our team win and improve. Time will tell if the draft picks work out. I am willing to see how it all plays out.
I have received several emails from folks complaining about us picking another Russian player. Some of the tonality would be shameful if it wasn’t so uneducated, so I will just ignore the xenophobia.